Private Project

School for life / Šola za življenje

School for Life is an intimate ethnographic portrait of a six-member family, created as part of the doctoral dissertation Visual Ethnography of Housewives' Everyday Life in Slovenia. The film follows Mihaela, a former Slovenian language teacher, who chose to stay at home after the birth of her second-born and decided not to send her children to kindergarten or school. Together with her husband Boštjan and their four children, she explores alternatives—from natural home births and homeschooling to pursuing a more ecological, sustainable, and self-sufficient way of life.

For Mihaela, education is inseparable from everyday life—woven into household chores, play, gardening, and family interactions. The film tenderly observes how learning and upbringing unfold in spontaneous daily moments and shape the family’s rhythm between 2021 and 2022, a period marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and Boštjan’s year-long parental leave.

Film is part of a PhD thesis Visual Ethnography of Housewives' Everyday Life in Slovenia, funded by Slovenian Research Agency (Program No. P6-0088).

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Šola za življenje je intimni etnografski portret šestčlanske družine iz Bele krajine, ki je nastal v okviru doktorske disertacije Vizualna etnografija gospodinj v Sloveniji. Film spremlja Mihaelo, nekdanjo učiteljico slovenskega jezika, ki se je po rojstvu drugega otroka odločila, da svojih otrok ne bo vključila v vrtec ali šolo. Skupaj z možem Boštjanom in štirimi otroki raziskuje drugačne pristope – od naravnih porodov in šolanja na domu do prizadevanj za ekološki, trajnostni in samozadostni način življenja.

Mihaela razume izobraževanje kot del vsakdana, prepletenega z gospodinjskimi opravili, igro, pridelovanjem hrane in družinskim življenjem. Film občutljivo beleži, kako se znanje in vzgoja vključujeta v spontane trenutke dneva ter oblikujeta družinski ritem med letoma 2021 in 2022, v času epidemije covida-19 in Boštjanovega enoletnega starševskega dopusta.

  • Manca Filak
    Director
    Tobacco memory, Lukomir, my home, Young Hopefuls
  • Audio Visual Laboratory Institute for Slovene ethnology Slovene scientific research centre
    Producer
  • Manca Filak
    Key Cast
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Šola za življenje
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Ethnographic
  • Runtime:
    1 hour
  • Completion Date:
    April 8, 2025
  • Country of Origin:
    Slovenia
  • Country of Filming:
    Slovenia
  • Language:
    Slovenian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • ETNOFF
    Skopje
    North Macedonia
    October 7, 2025
    Macedonian premiere
  • Institute of Slovenian Ethnology ZRC SAZU
    Ljubljana
    Slovenia
    October 15, 2025
  • Kino brez ovir
    Cerknica
    Slovenia
    February 24, 2026
  • Dnevi etnografskega filma
    Ljubljana
    Slovenia
    March 3, 2026
  • Festival neodvisnega filma
    Ljubljana
    Slovenia
    April 4, 2026
  • Visualista
    Cardiff
    United Kingdom
Distribution Information
  • Audiovisual Laboratory ISN ZRC SAZU
    Distributor
    Country: Slovenia
Director Biography - Manca Filak

Manca Filak is an Assistant at the Research Center of Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Institute of Slovenian Ethnology) in Ljubljana. Since 2012 she has been active in the field of visual anthropology as an author of ethnographic films and documentaries screened at various film festivals in Europe and abroad. As a part of Audiovisual Laboratory she is a co-organizer of Days of ethnographic film festival and Summer School of Visual Ethnography in Ljubljana.

Filmography, screenings and awards:

- Odnesel te bom na morje / I will carry you to the sea side (2012):
Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2013), Asterfest International Film Festival Strumica (MK, 2013) - Second prize SILVER horseshoe;
part of permanent exhibition I, we and others: Images of my world in Slovene Ethnographic museum (Ljubljana).

- Kapitan in njegov Petek / Captain and His Friday (2013):
Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2014), Festival of Ethnological Film Belgrade (SRB, 2014), Etnographic Film Festival Kratovo (MK, 2013).

- Zvonko in Ivanka / Zvonko and Ivanka (2015):
Etnofilm Festival Rovinj (HR, 2016) – SPECIAL MENTION, Festival of Ethnological Film Belgrade (SRB, 2016), Etnographic Film Festival Kratovo (MK, 2016), Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2017), Sguardi sui territori: Antropologia visuale ed ecomusei - Gemona del Friuli (IT, 2017).

- MLADA NADA / Young Hopefuls (2016):
Grossman Fantastic Film and Wine Festival Ljutomer (SI, 2016), DOKUDOC International Documentary Film Festival Maribor (SI, 2016), Festival of independent film Ljubljana (SI, 2016), DORF Documentary festival of rock film Vinkovci (CRO, 2017), Jamnarkult Motavun (SI, 2018) - BEST FILM OF THE FESTIVAL (MAIN JURY & AUDIENCE AWARD).

- Заграбване на земята / Land Grabbing (2017):
Sjón International Film Festival Copenhagen (Denmark, 2018), International conference ORGANIC FARMING IN BULGARIA: MORE INNOVATIONS FOR BETTER RESULTS (Bulgaria, 2018), Sofia Biting Docs (Bulgaria, 2019).

- Lukomir, moj dom / Lukomir, my home (2018)
Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2018), SEFF International Ethnographic Film Festival (CRO, 2018), NAFA Nordic Anthropological Film Association (ROM, 2018), Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival (USA, 2018), European Association of Social Anthropologists (Biennial Conference: Staying, Moving, Settling) (SWE, 2018), International festival of ethnological film (SRB, 2018), Kratovo ethnographic film festival (MK, 2018), Festival Gorniškega filma (SI, 2019), World Film Festival (EST, 2019), International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF): Track Changes: Reflecting on a Transforming World (ES, 2019), 7th Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association (APA) (PORT, 2019); ETNOFF (MK, 2019), Kathmandu Mountain Film Festival (NEPAL, 2019), (Göttingen) International Ethnographic Film Festival (GER, 2020) - MANFRED KRUGER STUDENT AWARD.; Golden Tree International Documentary Film Festival (Bejing – Paris 2021).

- Etnologija, antropologija, folkloristika / Ethnology, anthropology, folkloristics (2018), short documentary.

- Tradicionalna reja in vzreja lipicancev / Traditional breeding and raising of Lipizzan horses (2019).

- Tobačni spomini / Tobacco memories (2020)
Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2021); Rising Gardens Film Festival (Asia 2021); SIEF2021: BREAKING THE RULES? POWER, PARTICIPATION, TRANSGRESSION; SEFF Student Ethnographic Film Festival (CRO, 2021) - THIRD PLACE; 8th International Degrowth Conference (NL, 2021) – “Feminist and Decolonial Naturecultures”; Cinema and You International Film Festival (UKR, 2021) – NOMINATION Documentary Film Students; Kratovo Ethnographic Film Festival (MK, 2021); International festival of ethnological film Belgrade (SRB, 2021); ETNOFF Skopje (MK, 2021); Vizantrop engaged ethnographic film festival (SRB, 2021) Serbia; Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival (US, 2021); IUAES 2021 Yucatan Congress: INDIGENOUS AND ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM EXHIBITION (Mexico, 2021); The International Ethnographic Film Festival of Quebec (Canada, 2022); Festival neodvisnega filma (SI, 2022); Festival neodvisnega filma (SI, 2022); EASA2022: Transformation, Hope and the Commons (Belfast, 2022); 8th Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association APA (2022); KIEFF - Korea International Ethnographic Film Festival (2022); ETNOFILM ČADCA (Slovakia, 2022) - ETHNOLOGIST BEHIND THE CAMERA AWARD; RAI - Royal Anthropological Film Festival (Bristol, 2023).

- Šola za življenje / School for life (2025)
ETNOFF (Skopje, 2025), DEF (Ljubljana, 2026), FNF (Ljubljana, 2026), Visualista (Cardiff, 2026).

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