LE CENTRE ET LA CLASSE

The PMS (Psychological, Medical and Social) Centres measure and facilitate the development of schoolchildren in Belgium. This film, commissioned by the Ministry for National Education, demonstrates the methods adopted with children in the sixième (around 10-11 years), through their medical, academic and other assessments and the processes for identifying and addressing any problems. The documentary was filmed ironically and becomes a denunciation of these methods, revealing two opposing worlds: that of the adults, measuring, enclosing and judging; and that of the children, who express themselves poetically. It is almost a film about daily fascism, as individual quirks are identified and classified as ’problems’ to be resolved. (Text based on www.borislehman.be)