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Pick of the Indies
OCTOBER'S offering at The Highgate Film Society is French education documentary Etre et Avoir. Director Nicholas Philibert follows a class made up of a mixture of ages, ably marshalled by their superb teacher Georges Lopez.
Philibert identifies this type of educational experience as rapidly disappearing. There are in France single class schools where all the children are taught under one roof –the type of educational system that has long since disappeared from the small villages of rural England.
What makes the film work is the way the daily trials of being a child is so ably documented over the course of an academic year.
Lopez is a genial man, a giant looming large over a class whose youngest is four years old. He listens patiently to their problems and explains the lie of the land.
All this is set against the backdrop of rural France, with the seasons turning the world outside the classroom window different shades as you watch each pupil grow gently.
The society screenings are open to members and non-members.
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