This nicely filmed National Geographic-like documentary is "hosted" by a ship full of boys roughly ten to sixteen years of age. Follow them as they journey across the world in search of information about Christopher Columbus, make stops at and have adventures in places such as the Canary Island, Venezuela and Guatemala. Unique in that it is not a typical documentary, fails to be full of a lot of questioning, probing of the boys; instead, the camera simply follows them during their daily routine of maintaining the ship, educating themselves, having fun swimming, preparing meals, etcetera. The children were actually members of a French experimental school known as l'Ecole en Bateau (The Floating School); though little is said about the school per se, this will certainly be a worthy pursuit for anyone interested in alternative, hands-on teaching.

Warning (rated NR): brief nudity.

1990; aka Phares D'ovest: Dans le sillage de Christophe Colomb, Western Lights: In The Footsteps of Christopher Columbus, Western Lights: In The Wake of Christopher Columbus; in French with English subtitles; 120 minutes; Guillaume Blanchet, Yvan Bodineau, Maxime Bouneou, Gilles Crespo, Matthieu Durafour, Sophie Francois, Regis Kahn, Benoit Klam, Francois Klam, Cedric Lelievre, Ludovic Leroy, Pierre Ligoret, Romain Mignot, Didier Murat, Arnaud Pidolle, Javier, Natalia, Leonld Kameneff.