Implementation

The project was part of a Master’s degree programme titled Culture and Heritage, and represented one optional topic out of many other subjects. The scope of the project was 10 ECTS. The project was added to the curriculum, but was eventually chosen by only a few students.

During the first year, students chose and worked on the following topics:

• Melting Pot
  The idea was to get gourmet enthusiasts and cooks of different nationalities together, so that they could invent a common menu in neutral surroundings. They were filmed in a canteen (a relatively neutral place in any country).
• Pathos?
  The film recalls the memories of the French population born in Algeria during colonisation, which had to leave in dramatic conditions at the end of the conflict as reported by their children. Both generations are wondering about their place here and there.
• Conversation
  A conversation between four Erasmus students from Egypt, Lebanon, Spain and China was recorded. They exchanged their views on the city they had come to, and how they experienced their status as foreigner among each other and in France.
• From the Children's Perspective
  Children from various origins (aged 6 to 8) were filmed at a leisure centre. They discussed what ‘the other one’ means and translated it into paintings.

During the second year, another five videos were made:

• Czech Tango
  This is a portrait of a young Czech girl who came to France to study for two years, and of her passion for tango.
• Life of a Benin Artist
  Jean de Dieu Hanou is a self-taught artist. He paints, sculpts and teaches graphics in Cotonou. The film takes place at his workshop and deals with his daily activities as an artist, and with the way he sees his environment and relates it to the world.
• Jailbreak with Rap Music
  Juveniles in the Amiens prison talk describe their lives and their hopes on a rap CD. This is like sending a message in a bottle to establish contact with the outside world.
• Cross-Cultural Fairytales
  The idea was to collect, compare and confront tales from different countries and cultures by foreign students studying in Amiens, and then performing the tales in front of an audience to get to know each other better.
• What is Otherness
  Two students interviewed people on the street about what the Other meant.

All students shot their films but some have not finished their editing. Some students proved to be technically quite capable, while others had considerable difficulties. As a result, we chose to show two films that best represented their work: Melting Pot and Czech Tango (text and film).

What links all these films is the question of how to make society possible. Is it possible to build a common world by mixing different cultures?