Focus on School

How is school depicted in times of job insecurity, wars, and instability that involves the whole world? What is the role of teachers in pushing educational and training programs, often among many difficulties and in hostile environments? What is the role of those – whether a child or an adolescent, in class or in other spaces – who receive an education and a future entrance into society, other than just information and data?

The sixth edition of Job Film Days dedicates a special section to school with three movies to reflect on all these themes, opening a space of dialogue and debate. These three documentaries come from very different geographical and cultural areas, making us discover realities hidden from official narratives and teaching methods fit for complex and stratified living conditions. Coming from Austria, Ukraine and Brazil, both the stories and the movies that narrate them are the result of a long relationship between the directors and the people shot, the only way to establish a trusting relationship between those who stand behind the camera and those in front of it.

Favoriten by Ruth Beckermann showcases an elementary classroom in Vienna, attended by mainly foreign students: here we encounter the in-depth work, full of empathy, of a teacher of Turkish origins to put her students at ease in both learning activities and their families’ description. Timestamp by Kateryna Gornostai documents how school can and should still be open in Ukraine during war, and how teaching and studying are acts of resistance that should never be put aside. Playtime by Lúcia Murat describes the challenges faced by the Brazilian school system. The teachers’ duty is to spark reactions and emotions among the students, making them part of an active study that makes them feel the center of a horizontal – and not top-down – education.