Avoir 16 Ans

We thought, a few weeks after the events which inspired the screenplay, of shooting a documentary about this subject while it was still « hot ». But the « actors » of the drama were still minors and their parents, moreover, didn’t want to institute proceedings. We then chose « fiction » without remorse, with on the contrary the desire to universalize, to render our subject timeless ; to keep the strict moral substance and ideology. Thus, it was never a question of taking sides in favour or against, to defend or to acquit. In this true story, that which struck us was to notice that « secondary institutions » and those who are leading them are directly in the image of the « primary institutions », of high politics, high officials, high technocracy. In short, this true story took place in the same way that the crisis of October 1970 ; and we even believe that it could not have happened without it. Hence the immediate need we felt to write and film « Avoir 16 Ans ». A government may change, but the institutions remain however. A documentary certainly would have caused a scandal. Thinking it over, that scandal would have been useless, lost among other daily scandals. Therefore, we wrote a film of SIGNS and REFERENCES, a film OPEN to explanations and reflection, rather than a film closed in on the psychology of the characters and the anecdotes of the story. As if we were medical experts, we furnish a list of wounds. It is up to the audience to IMAGINE the life of those on which we have performed those « autopsies ». Jean-Pierre LEFEBVRE