I watched this documentary as a consideration to write about for PB#2. Although I didn’t end up writing about it, the documentary film itself was different and was touching.  ‘To be and To have’ is a french film which, tells a story about a teacher, Mr. Lopez who has been teaching at this particular school in a small rural area for a few years and showed his dedication to the children. Through it, we follow their story (‘their’ referring to Mr. Lopez and his students), as well as, specifically Mr.Lopez’s dedication teaching a school in an area which, only holds up to 200 people in its population.

In my opinion, this film was an inspiring and moving film to watch. This is because the story itself was an incredible ride, the story of Mr. Lopez’s journey teaching in a small class full of students with a variety of ages and being able to maintain a positive attitude and patience, was something that truly was inspiring. Not only him but also his student’s ambitious attitude to gain or obtain knowledge in a school located what I presume a very small ‘countryside’ and still being able to keep a smile on their faces, was also encouraging to watch. In addition, not only does this documentary takes an interesting plot, it also has different elements, in terms of its technicalities (visual and aural textures) that was one to watch and refer to, especially, before the final project for this course. So, for me personally, it definitely was different than ‘Winter at Westbeth’, but as we discussed in class, I definitely could learn something from it, in terms of how the shots were taken, how the film was put together or edited and more. Therefore, it was a good film to watch that brought a meaningful message and a marvelous film that I could learn from as a documenter for this course.