Scuola Media

Scuola media: the Italian for “junior high”, places this institution halfway along the path from childhood to adulthood. This educational crossroads is also a privileged vantage point for observing a community. From the schoolboy Antonio who, when asked what the law is, replies: “a brochure”, to the mother who explains to the administration that her children skip school to stay home with her as she has “no memory”, the snatches of conversation heard in the corridors or in the classroom evoke the off-screen world, away from school. ScuolaMedia is thus not just one more documentary “on” the education system. It sets itself up, with open eyes and ears, to echo the Italian society. And the Pirandello junior high is not located just anywhere in Italy. Tarante, in Apulia, is a hub of the European steel industry, but its steelworks are slowly killing the inhabitants, reduced to choosing between pollution and pauperisation. By editing a succession of short scenes, Marco Santarelli weaves anxiety into daily life at school. In the music lesson, we hear a song about the “factory silhouettes”. In another class, mention is made of the ILVA (the state company that runs the blast furnaces)… Is it a coincidence that Hell is discussed in the religion class?

Charlotte Garson