Synopsis
Marie and Juliette quit their teaching jobs to open La Petite Ecole in the heart of Brussels where children without former schooling and often exiled are welcomed. Leaving aside formal learning, they offer them space and time to be children again before facing school which will expect them to be students. This film walks us through their efforts and research and thereby forces us to see the schooling system as a possible perpetuator of oppression that affects us all.
Director's Biography
Lydie Wisshaupt-Claudel has been living in Brussels since 2001. She studied editing at the Higher National Institute of Performing Arts (INSAS). After graduating in 2006, she made her directorial debut with “There’s still light” (Il y a encore de la lumière), a travel journal in Iceland on how to face solitude. Based on a long road trip in the American West emerged “Sideroads” (2012), her first documentary feature : along with her partner, she met Americans wavering between faith and disillusion towards the American Dream. During the journey, she came across the California military town of Twentynine Palms, where she came back to direct “Killing Time – entre deux fronts”, her third documentary, which won multiple awards and international recognition in festivals in 2015. Her new feature documentary, “Leading Lights” (Éclaireuses), invites us to question our educational system and bias, through the observation of the daily work and research of two teachers, working with children with no schooling past, for most of them in exile. She still works alternately as a film director and editor, as she’s convinced that both activities are complementary and enrich one another.
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