Have you ever wondered why high schools and prisons looks so similar? As it turns out, many of our high schools are designed by the same architects that design our prisons. I know my high school was. Rooms with no windows, layouts that encourage a certain flow of foot traffic, even common areas adjacent to the guard station Principal’s Office. But high school often feels like a prison in practice, not just in appearance. You’re told what to do, where to go, what to say, what to read, and even how to think. There are factions. There are rivalries. There are drugs. I could go on…

GUIDELINES, from director Jean-Francois Caissy, employs a unique cinéma vérité style to observe the students at a rural Quebec high school in a variety of “interventions” with authority figures. The film begins with an intervention on a boy who is often distracted in class and failing. He is asked to sign a contract, which dictates how he will behave, and how he will change his thinking in order to be a better student.

Yes, change his thinking. While I appreciate the administrations desire to encourage different coping mechanisms for this troubled boy, I can’t imagine that I would have taken kindly to being told to sign a contract dictating how I need to think at the age of 14. Or 20. Or 26.

Not all of the interventions are so invasive though. They show a range of problems these young people face, from learning disabilities to drugs, to bullying, to issues at home. Unlike a prison, these adolescents are not being punished. They choose to be there, and they seem legitimately interested in learning and doing better.

With the long takes and observational style of the film, we begin to feel a part of this process of empowerment and correction. One on one, it’s so much easier to see them as what they are: children on their way to adulthood. They are growing, moulding, and healing as they go; changing before our eyes. They are quite literally the future. But they also inhabit two worlds. They are children: climbing up the highest bridge and jumping into the water, goofing off in their parents cars, playing paintball, and riding their bikes. But they are also adults: working hard, waking up early, doing chores, taking on part time jobs and internships. It’s in this juxtaposition that Caissy really captures the essence of the struggle of adolescence.

Combined with his beautiful cinematography and truly engaging young people and administrators, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was hooked.

GUIDELINES plays Hot Docs 2014 once more at Scotiabank Theatre on Saturday May 3rd at 4:30pm.

For more from Kate Bradford, visit her site: www.katehasablog.com