Films by season & age - Documentaries (Ages 15-18)

Seasons are a great way to explore different ideas through watching a group of films. Why not try watching all the films in a season and make some time for discussion. Topics and discussion points are included.

Compiled with the help of The St Marylebone CofE School.

Showing us the world as it really is, documentaries use real people and real events rather than actors and scripts to tell their stories. Although you might think that having to "stick to the facts" would make the films less thrilling as a result, in fact documentaries are being seen more and more as possibly the most exciting type of film around.

For this season of documentaries, FILM CLUB was helped in making its selection by the pupils of St Marylebone CofE School. They helped choose a series of movies that show off documentaries at their best - sometimes hilarious, sometimes saddening, but always memorable.

Suggested pair:

Although one is set in France and the other America, Etre et Avoir and Spellbound both offer fascinating glimpses of kids and school life in other countries and cultures.

Why not watch Super Size Me and An Inconvenient Truth as a pair? Both films argue strongly against some of how we live today, but in very different ways!

 

Talking points:

Do you think that a fictional film with a script and actors made about the same subject as the documentary you've just watched would have been as good?

Did you ever feel that the documentary was "telling you what to think" or did you feel that you were left to make your own mind up about things?