At child’s height | Poem about childhood

“This is the story of two amazed children who let themselves be lulled by what the world has to offer them.”

It is with these somewhat solemn words that the At child heighta documentary, or rather a story, a poem, a lullaby about childhood, to rediscover the magic of your 6 years.

You know: that sweet time when we can barely decipher letters, or a visit to the dentist rhymes with a gift or a surprise, and where we play bad guys, but especially good guys? That time when everything is covered with a certain aura of mystery, let’s say magic?

Documentarians Mélanie Carrier and Olivier Higgins, a couple and parents in real life, captured three beautiful years of their children Émile and Béatrice, by making this somewhat long-winded but very beautiful observational film, which has become a necessity. It has just won the Jean-Marc-Vallée Audience Award at the Quebec City Film Festival.

“In hindsight, yes, we realize that it’s a huge gift, but it actually comes from a deep need, and we started thinking about it a long time ago,” explains Mélanie Carrier in an interview. She was pregnant with Béatrice, while Émile was 3 years old (the two children are now 7 and 11, and filming began when they were 2 and 6).

It should be noted that the two parents, originally from Quebec, to whom we owe several other documentaries (Asiemut, Québécoisie, Wandering without return) have asked themselves a lot of questions about education.

What do we transmit to children? How do we tell them about the world? “Do we impose a vision on them?” Olivier Higgins asks in turn.

What if the answer was in their eyes? Or rather: their gaze? Hence the idea of ​​filming life at their level, literally (several adults have their heads cut off on screen), a project that was initially intended to be multicultural (with children from Haiti, Palestine and Nepal), which was ultimately limited to Quebec, due to the pandemic.

It must also be said that the couple had just finished filming here Wandering without return (2020), a very harsh immersion in a refugee camp in Bangladesh (capped with three Iris awards, including the prize for best documentary), and had a great need for gentleness. Definitely poetry.

And it’s a fact: children have the gift of being amazed by everything, but especially by nothing: an earthworm here, a small crayfish there, and what about the sound of bells that we hear in the night? “Do we lose something as we get older?” the film asks head-on.

In concrete terms, the camera followed the two children for almost three years. The first images document the entry into 1^D year of the eldest, his learning to read, music or the arts, while his little sister dresses up, sings and dances, dreaming of having a unicorn, and of not growing up, above all. The seasons pass very aesthetically on the screen (the images of winter are particularly picturesque), to almost hypnotic classical music (signed Philippe Brault). At one point the pandemic arrives, of which we will not see much, apart from a few masks, and a handful of scenes of remote school.

In the end, not much happens: a few dialogues, a lot of hugs, without any drama. In the background, once or twice, the sound of the news (François Legault here, Donald Trump there), nothing more. “Because that’s life!” says Mélanie Carrier. I think we need that right now, we’re so bombarded with images. And then at the same time, these children are growing up, living their lives! As adults, we have to remember what it’s like to be a child. Because they remind us of the importance of little wonders!” It’s tender and contemplative. And it does the world of good.

In the room

Screenings followed by a question period with the filmmakers: Friday, September 20 at 7 p.m. at Beaubien, and Saturday, September 21 at 5 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise

Documentary

At child height

Melanie Carrier and Olivier Higgins

1 h 33