Echoing the release of the film, criticized even before its release, focus on a cinematographic project carried out for eleven years in colleges in the Bouches-du-Rhône: “All the light on the Segpa”.
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This is a film that generated controversy even before its release. The comedy Segpasdirected by Ali and Hakim Boughéraba, is in theaters from Wednesday April 20 but its trailer revealed in January had raised many criticisms.
In this film co-produced by Cyril Hanouna, students from a Segpa – the acronym for Adapted General and Professional Education Section, a secondary school stream that welcomes young people with significant academic difficulties – are presented as “dunces”. The portrait drawn by the film is harsh and the shortcut much too easy for William Benedetto, director of the Alhambra cinema in Marseille: “That’s the whole problem with the film. It tells a story that contradicts what really happens in the Segpa.”
The Marseille cinema director is the bearer of All the light on Segpa. The educational project was born in the Bouches-du-Rhône eleven years ago. Each year, eight Segpa classes from eight different colleges get involved. Everyone must make a short film. ”It is a pillar of our artistic and cultural journey”explains Olivier Guénoune, teacher at the Mont-Sauvy college in Orgon.
Each year, the teacher accompanies the Segpa in the project. In their latest short film, the student actors highlight their sector: “I’m in general and I’m fed up it’s too boring. How do we come to Segpa?”, asks a student. “You see to get into Segpa you have to be part of the ‘dys’ club, like me who is dyslexic or like Einstein the greatest scientist in the world”, replies another. The acting is surprising and stunning.
“Some students who have behavioral problems have managed to fit in. For example during filming when we say ‘silence’, there is real silence. It is a transversal skill that they have managed to acquire”, emphasizes Olivier Guénoune.
For William Benedetto, from the Alhambra cinema which hosts the screenings at the end of the year, it is art at the service of success for these students. “This artistic pedagogy proves that these students can succeed and are capable of many things. It’s a way of saying that these courses are good for these students. They allow many of them to find a more classic pattern. “ A formula that works and that could be exported to other regions, Occitanie and Hauts-de-France are very interested in it.
“All the light on the Segpa”: report by François Ventéjou
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