Can making a film chnage minds and ideas? A documentary and experiment in race relations

Jean Rouch - anthropologist (with a particular interest in French ex-colonies in Africa) and filmmaker (and co-director of Chronicle of A Summer, qv) - filmed The Human Pyramid 1961 as a bold experiment in form and culture. He went to a mixed-race high school in the Ivory Coast and enlisted the students in one class in his project: They would create and direct a film about race relations; he would assign them roles - for ex., one of the black students was assigned to argue against fraternizing w/ whites - and they would play out the roles and develop a narrative and a film. The film they develop - it seems that they had a loose idea of where each scene was heading, but the dialog is always improvised on the spot - begins when one of the white students approaches the African students and suggests the two groups get to know one another; this leads to internal arguments in each group as to whether that is a good idea, or if the whites are patronizing, etc. Over time - the film seems to take place over maybe half a school year? - the groups begin to socialize, some friendships form, there are some interracial couples, leading to arguments and jealousy, there are a few social gatherings - dances and parties - and ultimately there's a fight between rival suitors. (A final scene was apparently staged by Rouch w/out student input, to test their reactions to the supposed death of a student - how this worked was unclear to me.) At the end, there's a little discussion about the project among the students at a screening, and a final shot of 4 of the students, seeming to be good buddies, on a street in Paris. The film is engaging and provocative - especially when the students get in some very heated discussions about Apartheid - but I think it did need a little more context. We don't have a sense as to what students truly thought about one another before them film nor whether the film actually changed attitudes and ideas; I expect it did, but before and after interviews might have helped (Rouch seems to have realized this, too - as his famous Summer Chronicle does including follow-up interview w/ key participants, to great effect).