Questions to the films “Sing” (Mindenki - Everybody) and Educayshun

The main idea of this task is to learn how to compare two films. The start point for each
comparison is the grounds for comparing, simply speaking films should be different and resemble
simultaneously. Obviously, in terms of ordinary spectators’ impression these films are different
and produce quite different media-emotions. But from the point of view of a researcher of
education, these films are comparable, and thinking about the task you will practice this position
concerning the analysis of films.

While it is my decision to compare these films, I would explore the reasons. The films reveal the
very probable corruption of education and high risk of injustice concerning the students, both
films consistently perform a school class drama genre, and both are short – what is really
important in terms of the very strict rules to present the priorities which would be in focus of
our comparison. Along with these similarities (or positive comparability), the films are different
because of historical substantiation (“Sing” is about first post-socialist years, and Educayshun –
quite recent period of struggling for tolerance and integration), cultural contexts (“Sing” is
extremely Hungarian because of music and Educayshun seems to play with global idea of contemporary
education), and linking with ordinary world (“Sing” is based on a true story, while Educayshun is
dystopic parody). My comparison aims to sharpen the issue of education, society and injustice as
one of the basic points for our course.

Education vs. Society:  Dilemmas and dichotomies

In both films education is presented as a system which faces the dilemma of individual interest vs.
collective goods (public good) – for instance, collective trip to Sweden or equal access to
education even Advanced Mathematic Class. Do you agree that this dilemma is one of the most
important? What is the role of education: should the school teach the students to submit their
interest to collective priorities; to face the dilemma of individual vs. collective and practice
different strategies to solve it; to teach to protect individual interests against collective/group
pressure? Are these films different in their own answer to this question?

Both films stress the multiple separation of classroom from external environment (gradual move of
the main protagonist from general space to the passage to the classroom, and then to classroom, the
doors which should be closed). Why both films emphasize this separation of classroom from external
world? What is the position of education in the films regarding society and out-of-school life?

Both films emphasize “closed in closed” effect. In “Sing” both girls share their “sanctuary places”
where they feel themselves safe and relaxed in contrast to the space of classroom. In Educashay
there is the box with the bodies or body of former students in the center of the classroom.   How
does this difference in constructing the opposition of external world to school work in each of the
films?

Injustice in education: natural or artificial

What is the core of injustice, why students are not satisfied and cry for justice? Who are these
students in each of the films? The age of students is different: in the Educayshun they are young
adults or late adolescents and in “Sing” young adolescents, is it important for understanding
injustice in each of the films? Is it important that in both films the teacher is a woman? How this
gender dimensions works?

What is the main source of injustice, who and why produces injustice? In both films the teacher is
corrupted by the system, even more the teacher deepens this effect by corrupting the children.  How
do the teacher “seduce” the students to participate in injustice and legitimize it? Please, provide
detailed comparison of the repertoire of identity – values, cultural practices, (un)reasonable
expectations.  How these values operate in favor of injustice and  make the students be ready to
participate in arbitrariness and take  responsibility?

What are the main consequences of injustice? The teachers corrupt values  – using them in own
violent favor. In which case it looks more disgusting, when it is about liberal values, progress
and tolerance or about music as a kind of national heritage? What do the students feel and which
issue they face? How do the films bring the deprivation of the students into focus? What are the
key scenes of losing dignity, who loses dignity because of oppression, does this experience unite?

Disobedience: way to justice?

In both films the students face the dilemma of dignity vs. obedience, but what makes justice
possible in the “Sing” and what makes it impossible in the Educayshun? Compare the composition of
the students’ characters in both films –   what is the main difference between these two films in
terms of the students’ group, the role of informal leaders, etc…?