The school in To Be
and To Have seems like a haven for learning. The documentary form is well
suited to explore the quiet moments of learning the children experience. The
delicate and personal way Georges Lopez teaches makes me long for a time of
simpler learning. Both the form of documentary as well as the interactions on
the screen speak to the idea of Tabula Rasa we discussed in class—these
children have a blank slate and are learning, by degrees, the ways and meaning
of the world. In the meantime, as they learn, their knowledge is often
ill-placed and confused, but we soon see them improving to “exercise of those
other faculties of enlarging, compounding, and abstracting its ideas, and of
reasoning about them, and reflecting upon all these…” (John Locke).
The documentary form communicates the idea of Tabula Rasa—a
blank slate—in a fantastic way. To use Dean Duncan’s objectives for documentary
filmmaking, this film exalts the everyday. The observational style, low angles,
and long takes share a fascination with the tiny, mundane processes of the
film. Extended takes of the children goofing off, making faces, dawdling, and
daydreaming portray the wonderment that surrounds everyday life, which, for
these children, is a new and exciting passage in the slate of their mind. The
very idea of exalting the everyday and taking fasciation with children,
reflects the ideas of inquiry in that children are still fascinated with the
world—and consequently are fascinated with other children and their own
representation.
The little subject Jojo perhaps provides the best example of
Tabula Rasa. His fascination with the world, as well as his interactions with
the other students, show that he has little idea of how the world truly
operates. One memorable scene is when he has paint all over his hands and
Monsieur Lopez is telling him to wash it. Jojo goes on and on about how he has
one of the little trinkets on the desk in his own home. After a few repetitions
of this, he seems to finally get the idea that he needs to go wash his hands.
Another interesting case study is in the older students, Olivier
and the other one whose name I can’t remember. When they are sitting with
Georges for fighting, they seem to have no clue how to handle the conflict.
Later on, toward the end of the semester, it’s obvious that these boys have
learned to put aside their differences and have become friends.
Overall, the film is the very illustration of the enlarging,
compounding, abstracting, reasoning, and reflecting that Locke describes. Both
the documentary form and the subject matter portray the idea of having a blank
slate and still being excited about the mundane world.
No comments:
Post a Comment