A Saturday in June 2002, in the small school of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, in the heart of the Puy-de-Dôme: it is Georges Lopez’ last day as a primary school teacher. He has taught the school’s only class – children of different ages all together – for over thirty years. We know George Lopez from his appearance in the documentary Être et avoir: a few images showing a meticulous, attentive educator enthused with the passion for teaching.
Little by little, Georges Lopez describes the path that led him to take charge of a village’s single class, and, later, to take part in the Être et avoir project. He tells us about this singular adventure, reveals the joys and disappointment that came with it and the reasons that moved him to sue the Film’s production company. At the end of a legal battle which he lost, Georges Lopez asks us to hear his version of the events, and offers us in writing that which the film often stole from him: the daily life, without a mise en scène, of a school teacher convinced that his is the most beautiful of professions.
Georges Lopez is fifty-nine. A primary School teacher for over thirty years, he was also the central figure of the acclaimed documentary Être et avoir.