As a young father, watching his daughter go through her life
experiences, film director Alexandre Mourot discovered the Montessori
approach and decided to set his camera up in a children’s house (3 to 6
years of age) in the oldest Montessori school in France.
Alexandre was warmly welcomed in a surprisingly calm and peaceful
environment, filled with flowers, fruits and Montessori materials. He
met happy children, who were free to move about, working alone or in
small groups. The teacher remained very discreet. Some children were
reading, others were making bread, doing division, laughing or sleeping.
The children guided the film director throughout the whole school year, helping him to understand the magic of their autonomy and self-esteem – the seeds of a new society of peace and freedom, which Maria Montessori dedicated her life work to.
The film was released in French theatres in Automne 2017. Now, we are trying to find a distributor for english countries.
THE PROJECT
“Education
should not limit itself to seeking new methods for a mostly arid
transmission of knowledge: its aim must be to give the necessary aid to
human development.”
Maria Montessori
We all dream of a bright future for our children: a fertile personal life and a harmonious social life. School partly nurtures these aspects. So, which pedagogy should we choose? I here invite you to discover Maria Montessori’s method of education.
Based on her scientific observations, Maria Montessori discovered that by respecting a child’s personality and by offering him an environment that meets his developmental needs, they could thrive and build a solid foundation for living the human adventure with joy. In 1907, she opened a nursery school in Rome where she developed a new method of education. Her pedagogy rapidly become well known and is still growing in the world today.
This documentary invites you to discover the main concepts of this pedagogy, in particular how they are implemented in the reality of the daily routine of a nursery class where the filming took place throughout the year 2015.
The programme includes: meeting the children, observing their free actions and discover how, over time, thanks to the trust given to them and to the attention given to their needs, they gain in independence, concentration, self-confidence, self-discipline, social openness… and how their enthusiasm to learn is stimulated.
Another concern of the film is to bring to light all the challenges that Christian Maréchal needs to overcome, how best to fulfill his role as an educator of 28 children from 3 to 6 years old. How does he go about creating and maintaining a peaceful environment which will enable each child to be happy, build his self-esteem and nourish his potential…?
Voice-off: thanks to unpublished archives found while working on this film, keys will be given to understand the Montessori values, how the pedagogy works and Maria Montessori herself. Recent scientific researches in neuroscience and psychology will be brought up to confirm the pedagogue’s intuition.
If, like Maria Montessori, we think that “the child is the father of man”, then allowing ourselves to be guided by the teacher full of love, enthusiasm, intelligence, is opening a path towards peace and the elevation of humanity.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Beginning of the autumn term 2014, I then began an
in-depth study, looked into archives, met numerous people and of course
spent days of observation in classes all over France (22 in all). My
passion for the subject did not stop to grow and I actively looked for a
setting to produce my project. I eventually started my documentary in
Christian Maréchal’s class at Jeanne d’Arc school in Roubaix (France)
February 2015. During summer 2015 I started the International Montessori
teacher program at early childhood level (ages 3-6) in order to refine
my knowledge.
My aims for this documentary are high : the best
possible quality for the viewers to experience the class and meet the
children in the best possible way and a large scale circulation, as well
as on a global scale. Indeed, the scientific teaching of Maria
Montessori is for me a great proposal for the future of our children. I
am convinced that if we try to understand it, it will widen our
perception of our children and thus allows us to be more accurate in our
relationships with them.”
Alexandre Mourot, director
FILM CREW
Alexandre Mourot – Film director
He decided to follow a history of art course at La Sorbonne University,
be trained in photography and eventually in documentary filmmaking at
the Ateliers Varan. In 2009 his first documentary called “Poubelles et
Sentiments” (“garbage and feelings”) was released, dealing with the
attachment we have with material things. The film was selected for
screening by several festivals.
Since 2014, he has dedicated himself fully to documentary making, with a
passion for education. In the summer 2015, he started an international
Montessori training for 3 to 6 year old children (with the AMI) to
improve his knowledge of the Montessori educational methods, which was
the subject of his second movie.
Catherine Mamecier – Chief editor
Working for Parisian productions was Catherine’s
first job in 1990, for which she produced numerous magazine editings
(such as L’Oeil du Cyclone on Canal + channelShe naturally looked
towards a line of documentary editing work and has been working since
1997 for a regional TV channel (France 3 Loraine).
To establish her knowledge, she went into a professional Master on production and documentary editing.
“What attracted me first to Alexandre’s project was its militant side, the will to promote Maria Montessori’s project about children’s education to build different future, and secondly the filming quality: the images are really beautiful and put the child right in the center of our reflection. With such materials, the story is full of promises from a technical point of view (80 hours of rushes) as well as from a narrative perspective.”
The children
“Directing our action toward mankind means, first and foremost, doing so with regard to the child. The child, that ‘forgotten citizen’, must be appreciated in accordance with his true value. His rights as a human being who shapes all of mankind must become sacred, and the secret laws of his normal psychic development must light the way for civilisation.”
Maria Montessori
2014-2015: born in 2011: Marine, Victorien, Géraud, Félix, Noélie, Louis, Séraphine, Camille, Charlie ; born in 2010: Achille, Étienne, Gabriel, Léa, Nour, Gabin, Roxane, Valentine, Mathieu, Auguste ; born in 2009: Joseph, Garance, Bartimée, Juliette, Titouan, Jeanne, Olivier, Yanis, Sixtine.
2015-2016: born in 2012: Alphonse, Marin, Pierre, Alix, Adèle, Agathe, Antoine, Pierre, Charlotte, Robin ; born in 2011: Marine, Victorien, Géraud, Félix, Louis, Séraphine, Camille, Charlie ; born in 2010: Achille, Étienne, Gabriel, Léa, Nour, Gabin, Roxane, Valentine, Mathieu, Auguste.
Christian Maréchal – Montessori teacher
From 1992 to 1995, Christian worked in a Montessori school in a disadvantaged area in North of France.
In 1995 he entered the Montessori school of Roubaix and led the Montessori environment for the 6-9 years old.
In 2000 Christian took a training course for the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) 3-6 Diploma at the Maria Montessori Institute in Paris.
Since 2001, he has been leading a Montessori environment for the 3-6 years-old in the Montessori school of Roubaix.
Since 2002, he has worked with the Maria Montessori Institute of Paris and Geneva for the AMI training and becomes in 2005 became a member of the jury for the completion of the AMI 3-6 Diploma.
In 2012 Christian enrolled in the AMI Training of Trainers Programme.
In 2015, he completed his Montessori diploma in London for the “catechesis of the Good Shepherd”. The same year, he worked with Alexandre Mourot to shoot a documentary on the Montessori pedagogy.