It is because we went back down the ladder of time – because we only felt free once we had left, and because our minds had been as opened as they had been narrowed – that we went back to school. The question we wanted to resolve was whether education is about imposing a way of thinking or whether on the contrary it provides children with the knowledge and intellectual abilities which will enable them to be free as adults. The situations we came across were so varied, and often so contradictory, that when we had finished this project we realized that the answers we were hoping to find actually led to new questions. These doubts and questionings are therefore part of the documentary. The worlds we explored and which we talk about here are made of impressions and memories.”

 

This documentary was made by Olivier Culmann and Mat Jacob between 1993 and 1999 in 20 countries : Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Romania, Albania, Bolivia, Hong-Kong, Haiti, Cuba, Japan, Cameroon, Mauritania, Canada, India, Russia, the United-States, Mali, Mexico, the UK and France.