*Filming and post-production are still underway, and the official final version of the documentary hasn't been released yet. On top of that, I can't privately share any footage that shows the children's or interviewees' faces or reveals their private information. So instead of showing the current rough cut, I'm only sharing a few safe clips here. I hope these glimpses encourage viewers to engage with and reflect on broader conversations about education rooted in love and care.
“Ant School” is a local inclusive school offering nine years of primary and lower secondary education to students with and without special needs. Named after ants rather than powerful mascots like tigers or eagles, it places more value on steady, collective progress than on conventional ideas of success. During the past four years, I've worked on filming a documentary about “Ant School.” The story is told from the perspective of a mural artist who came across the school by chance and wanted to create a mural featuring its ant mascot and telling a story about making a little progress every day.
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This is me interviewing the homeroom teacher of a class that includes kids with and without special needs. She said she would sometimes invite the kids to her home and cook for them. “When you guide the kids with nothing but kindness, they will use kindness to guide their classmates with special needs. That's what I see as education,” she told me.
Kids are watching the unveiling of one of the murals. An ant is leading the way.
This clip shows kids arriving for the opening ceremony of a recent semester. In the background, you can see one of the newly painted murals featuring the school’s ant mascot. The ant is lying on the grass and writing the school’s motto on the wall: “Making a little progress every day” (每天进步一点点).
One day, we were filming kids painting the school walls with the mural artist. Their imagination was running wild, and a kid wrote “爱” (love) on the wall. Maybe this is what inclusive education taught them. Maybe this is what all this means to them.
“I love the kids. They see the world from different heights. They gave me a lot to think about,” said the mural artist.