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Media literacy and digital citizenship
The "Pocket Documentary" project
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As part of its mission to educate people about the media, information and digital citizenship, Arcom has been offering since 2015, in partnership with the Société civile des auteurs multimédia(Scam), the Forum des images and, as of September 2024, with ARTE Education, a project around documentary creation entitled: "Documentaire de poche".
This project offers an educational pathway that involves high-school students using a smartphone to create collective documentary films around an imposed theme.
Presentation of the "Pocket Documentary" project
"Documentaire de poche" is an educational project created by Arcom to raise awareness raising among high school students throughout France about the challenges of royalties, through workshops combining theory and practice.
This artistic and educational project enables them to reflect on their digital practices and their consequences, as well as to discover the different stages in the production of audiovisual content (e.g.: script construction, shooting, diffusion).
The students and their supervisors will be supported in their work by documentary and image professionals, as well as by the Arcom and ARTE Education teams, who will provide free in-class support.
Project objectives and progress
Objectives:
- Teach students to express themselves through the creation of images by using a smartphone to produce a documentary (about 5 minutes long) on a given theme.
- Make them aware of their digital cultural practices and their consequences, by placing them in the position of creators (e.g.: respect for copyright, diffusion of works online, reuse of works, unlawful practices, diffusion of a person's image, etc.).
Project schedule :
- The project will run from October 2025 to May 2026, ending in June 2026 with a screening in Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg and Marseille.
- During 7 2-hour sessions, classes will benefit from the intervention of professionals to discover the project, royalties, the documentary genre, and above all, to produce their own documentary film.
- Students will attend one session in Paris , either face-to-face or remotely, and will attend the final screening in a venue in their school's region.
A jury will vote for the best documentaries, which will then be promoted on the Arcom website and the Educ'Arteplatform .
The project requires a strong commitment from teachers, who must ensure that students are involved throughout.
2025-2026 edition: application and theme
The theme chosen for the eleventh edition of the "Pocket Documentary" project (2025-2026) organized by Arcom is: "Our stories in the spotlight".
Everyone has a story to tell, but the media don't always show the plurality of these voices. With this theme, students can create a short documentary to make their stories visible: their experiences, their differences, their aspirations, their concerns and so on.
In particular, this proposal will enable students to question media representations and how they can impact on the way they construct themselves as individuals and citizens.
To apply, please complete this document and send it to the following address
- departement.emi-sensibilisation@arcom.fr
Applications must be submitted by September 20, 2025.
2024-2025 edition: discover the selection of award-winning documentaries
The theme of the 2024-2025 edition was"Regards sur le handicap", and the following films received the jury's awards:
- Best Documentary: "Eliane et Yannick
- Jury's favorites: "Entendre le silence", "Les roues de Lisa, les pas de Shiva" and "Lilly".
- Prix du meilleur regard: "Martine, une vie quotidienne", "T'es maigre t'as de la chance" and "Avec Hélène".
- Best commitment: "Asperger en scène", "Contact" and "Dyslexique".
2023-2024 edition: discover a selection of documentaries screened
The theme of the 2023-2024 edition was"My Environment" , and the films proposed below are those that particularly caught the attention of the professionals who supervised the project:
- "Le dernier plongeon" by Yoan Gnahore, Ludivine Lethuillier, Anais Labattut, Justine Ferreira, Avrile De Brito, Iasmina Drimus from lycée Fénelon (Vaujours), with Iasmina Drimus
- "Duos " by Noémie Saliba, Saveria Quimerch, Manaslou Rilat-Emery, Timothée Le Brui Keis, Capucine Bojon from lycée Eugène Delacroix (Maisons-Alfort)
Resources: guides for teachers and students
- Teachers' Guide: this booklet introduces the "Documentaire de poche" scheme and provides an indicative schedule for each session, objectives to be achieved and reports to be presented to external contributors, to enable teachers to support students as the project progresses (NB: a new version of the guide will be published at the beginning of September).
- Student Guide: this booklet introduces the "Documentaire de poche" scheme, explains the organization of upcoming sessions, and lists useful points to bear in mind when creating an audiovisual project (NB: the Student Guide is available in pdf format. The document can be printed. The form fields are interactive and can be filled in directly once the pdf has been opened).
Download the filming and use authorization forms.
For further information, please contact Arcom's "Media education and copyright awareness raising" department: departement.emi-sensibilisation@arcom.fr
Video resources
Documentary vs. reportage
Documentary: a look at reality
Does documenting mean creating?
The filmer-filmed relationship