International Film School

Mark Reid visits a school in Bulgaria where they are teaching their pupils how to make movies. The school is in a small village called Dermantsi, which is 200 kilometres from the capital Sofia. Mark meets their inspirational teacher, Daniel Simeonov and film-maker Maria Dacheva. She is there to help the children make a short film for a project called Le Cinema Cent Ans De Jeunesse, which has been going for almost 30 years. Children from all around the world take part in this programme, from countries as disparate as Japan, Argentina, the United Kingdom and France. Thousands of films have been made by tens of thousands of students.

At the end of the school year, pupils from around the world gather to watch each other’s films. And to comment upon them. This year they are meeting in Lisbon. The pupils from Dermantsi have to decide which of their films to show there: their film about the local tattoo parlour, the weekly market, the sewing factory, the school bus ride, or a short documentary about their local horse market, which features a dancing horse.

Presenter: Mark Reid
Producer: Stephen Hughes