A documentary film about the impact of teaching Belfast school children philosophy is gaining significant BAFTA interest.
Young Plato: The Philosophy Boy of Ardyone captures a school year at Holy Cross Boys’ Primary School, to observe how the teaching of philosophy impacts the lives of pupils and the wider community.
Headmaster Kevin McArevey shows how critical thinking and pastoral care can empower and encourage four to 11-year-old children.
Read more: New film on teaching philosophy in an Ardoyne boys school
Dubbed "a real life Robin Williams from Dead Poet’s Society", the radical headmaster has swayed his students from the influence of violence, poverty, and drugs with lessons on Socrates, Aristotle, and Jean-Paul Sartre in a neighbourhood that has one of the highest youth suicide figures in Europe.
Audiences are a fly on the wall as the eccentric teacher, who grew up locally and returned to help his community after his own struggles with mental health, teaches the boys to communicate their fears.
Students replace physical conflict with intellectual debate and apply the influence of philosophers to playground fistfights, illness, and parental disharmony.
With the impact of his story and the film, Kevin is now being asked to speak in Jordan, Beirut: Lebanon, Poland and other areas of conflict to see what we can learn about how we deal with conflict from an early age and what impact that could have on our society.
Young Plato was recently recognised in the top 150 films in consideration for the Best Documentary award at the Oscars and has just won its 12th international award for Best Feature Documentary at Karama Film Fest in Jordan.
To find out more about Young Plato's BAFTA campaign, see here.
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