Vikalp@TISS screening of Etre et avoir (To be and To have) at 6pm on wednesday,the 21st of january 2009 in room no. V,TISS

  In a village schoolhouse in Auvergne, Georges Lopez teaches 13 children, ages ranging from about four to 12. Against a landscape of mountains and farmland, the children gather in Lopez’s warm and colorful classroom. As the children learn to read and write with Lopez’s help, they also learn to live side by side.
Inspired by the French phenomenon of ’single-class’ schools ÊTRE ET AVOIR charts the life of a small one-class village school over the course of one academic year, and takes a warm and serene look at primary education in the French heartlands.

Director Nicolas Philibert began his education by studying philosophy and later worked as an assistant director with filmmakers such as Rene Allio and Alain Tanner. His filmography includes Trilogy for a Lone Man (Trilogie pour un homme seul, 1987), Animals (Un animal, des animaux, 1996), Louvre City (La Ville Louvre, 1990), In the Land of the Deaf (Le Pays des sourds, 1993) and the recently released Back to Normandy (2008).