France, détours / épidode 2. Ce trait c'est ton parcours
Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger This film has been coproduced by Kadist Art Foundation and L’Age d’or productions in 2011. ‘Thirty years after the series «France tour détour deux enfants» by Jean-Luc Godard and A.-M. Miéville, we propose to « interrogate France » again and to initiate a reflection on the recurring question of ‘living together’. Our series, «France, détours» is made of several episodes produced in successive but independent stages. The thread that ties the episodes together is based on the choice to follow only the teenagers’ voice. Our meeting with the organization AFPAD at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, serves as a starting point for the second episode of the series. Inside the Gustave Courbet high school, AFPAD runs the headquarter of a program called “Fil continu”, that hosts teenagers temporarily excluded from compulsory education after a decision of the Disciplinary Board. The tutors of the “Fil continu” supervise the students by proposing classes in the morning and recreational activities in the afternoon. Through discussions and games, these students discover how to defuse a conflict, to meet an expectation, to follow or to outwit a rule and to experiment solidarity in a collective. These discoveries usually precede the emergence of an awareness, which does not occur without conflict. In this educational framework, can the teenagers gain enough confidence to pursue their education? Are they being listened to in their difficulties? Our choice, for this episode, is to provide an immersion in the daily lives of these students who have failed, allowing them to experience the efficiency of educative language. Our goal is to turn education into a debate, not a mere subject.’