The Senez high school in Henin-Beaumont is making its own cinema. (Site of teacher)

Last updated on 12 May 2026

It’s a great discovery I was invited by Cyrille Lemaire, a teacher at the Lycée Professionnel Henri Senez in Hénin-Beaumont. He has been leading a film workshop there for 15 years, not quite like the others. I invite you to push the door of this Paradiso Cinema of the North. You will discover about thirty films made by young people in high school.

Several of these short films have been awarded, some of which would largely deserve to be screened in theatres. Notice to producers, broadcasters and other goodwill. Young people at Senez high school are dying out.

15 years of film workshop in a pro high school

For 15 years, the students of the film workshop at the Lycée des Métiers Henri Senez have been producing one or more short films each year. As part of their classes and outside school time, they write, storyboard, shoot and edit their films with the help of their teachers (Cyrille Lemaire and Sylvain Caron, professors of history letters, Samuel Lefebvre, documentalist, and Virginie Flanquart, professor of visual arts).

A professional work that will draw its inspiration from the reality of the themes and issues crossed in this high school, which welcomes more than a thousand students each year. There is often a good dose of humor in these small films shot by young people, there is also sometimes a lot of emotion and sensitivity when they talk about topics that affect them closely.

The film workshop allows, depending on the year, between 10 and 50 young people who are trained in the hospitality, automotive, boilermaking or management or logistics professions to discover the behind-the-scenes of the manufacture of a film and, above all, to embark on the production of a work in its own right.

Movies to use with your students

I invite you to visit the Viméo channel of the cinema workshop at Senez High School. Here you will discover all the films. Among them, « The trades make their cinema » This could be of interest to many teachers working as co-facilitators in vocational high schools.

Among my favorites, "Encounters" An autobiographical film dedicated to migrants.

Another great animated film featured in the workshop: ‘Smile’.

This short film, which has not been able to run festivals like other short films made at Senez High School before him, tells in noises and animations the daily life of Léa, a hearing-impaired student. A small jewel of film lasting 5 minutes. Which distributor will broadcast it in the cinema? A national TV channel?

 

Update: Smile has just won the Grand Prix and the Prix des festivaliers at the Rencontres Lycéennes de video de Bagnères de Bigorre. Congratulations!

The cinema workshop at Senez High School is a perfect example of the slogan of this pro-Northern high school: With us raise your talents. Of the talent the young people of this cinema workshop have to resell.

The Viméo high school channel is here. You can also subscribe to their newsletter there.

To visit others sites of remarkable teachers, follow the guide.