Sir! Sir! 1968

Year Published: 1968

Country of Origin: Canada

Description: 16mm Film - Sir! Sir! - Kanada 1968 Directed by: Michael Rubbo Cinematography by: Tony Ianzelo and David De Volpi Starring: Members of Mrs. Ryans Drama Class, Teachers of Duke of York School Toronto Here is what happened in a Toronto classroom when teachers occupied the children's desks and children became the teachers. The film grew out of another, Mrs. Ryan's Drama Class, where young children found their way into creative drama. There is food for thought in this impromptu reversal of roles. Although dated a year earlier, Sir! Sir! (1968) grew out of the production of Mrs. Ryan’s Drama Class. It is a twenty-minute film recording an improvisation in which two students who had appeared in Mrs. Ryan’s Drama Class and a dozen of their teachers trade places for a class session. The young “teachers” are dressed in suits, the adult “students” more casually. In the film’s only narrated passage, Rubbo explains that there were no rehearsals, just a statement of the premise. Like Mrs. Ryan’s Drama Class, Sir! Sir! is filmed in black and white using direct-cinema style. We see the microphone often, members of the crew occasionally, Rubbo himself once or twice. It’s an engaging film. Anyone who was educated in a North American public school will recognize the behavior of both parties. The young teachers try very hard to act like the teachers they have known, attempting to maintain order and get through a lesson plan. The adult students seem to be having a great time acting out the disruptive behaviors and minor mischief-making they have had to contend with over the years. Of the two groups, the young teachers have the worse time in their roles, perhaps because they are taking the exercise more seriously than the adults. After “class” and a brief scene in which a student is detained after school for bad behavior, Rubbo debriefs the young boy who played the main teacher. Rubbo asks him if, after this experience, he would like to become a teacher. With a class like that, the exhausted, much-relieved boy says, “Not for a million dollars.” He doesn’t seem to be just role playing when he says that.

Transcription

[Music] for this is something else but the charismatic test I got a different one for tomorrow okay looks more of a domestic bearing some kind of massage tomorrow now remember some sit down yeah thank you get out the door stop that please today we are going to have another teacher this it will be here for me and always I can and this teacher is from a very important school so I want to show how you connect so when he comes in will you please stand up for him the same as Mr Marcus and it'll be coming in a couple minutes yes if you're really going to be here too cases foreign [Music] [Music] so you please [Music] okay now yeah [Music] sit down please inside time foreign ready afterwards [Music] all right [Music] this class was arranged by the boys themselves Jose Martins and Harry romanu the teacher's only involvement was to act as pupils there was no rehearsal it just happened this way one afternoon before the summer holidays [Music] now we are going to have a recipe surprise [Music] restaurants [Music] yep [Music] [Music] it's all done tonight all right I'm gonna live I'm not gonna come back thank you introduce yourself two things [Music] thank you sir I'm not doing anything more than I am not so bad I don't give you very much oh after a long walk in the woods it was time to dance I do so everyone went back to the left some who did that I can't read but that um your balls are you awake until I get a bit of work done today [Music] that's what's worse okay yeah foreign [Music] we're gonna have a little bit more fun [Music] I want you to say anything under water underwater all right do it again oh my God I want to have something different okay I have so many partners today with this oh my gosh in the future very cool be quiet please back here um the whole class is quiet and when you start to yell the class get annoying here and noisier annoyier and nobody can hear anything else [Music] more games because I can't believe I can only read pictures thank you down come down all right now don't work yes clean enough um [Music] to the board of education and thank them for the last truth never do that why not the way there they are terrible tomorrow [Music] all right you better be here I'll let you go it should it should have been better now at least there should have been some people's gloves do you think you'd like to be a teacher no if I had a class like that forget it well I wanted to go for a million dollars [Music] foreign [Laughter] [Music]

Online Copy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzD_7MKDeIU

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Record added: 2026-06-12 21:02:45