This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.If everyone in high government office saw The Boys of Baraka, who knows what kind of positive change it might inspire? From this remarkable documentary about hope and second chances, the message is clear: The poorest, most violent, undesirable neighborhoods in America are a breeding ground for hopelessness and despair, and there's a solution if only we'd give it a good fighting chance. The scene is Baltimore, Maryland, in 2002, where 76% of all African American boys living in the inner-city ghetto will never earn a high school diploma. As one adult tells the kids at a Baltimore school, they have three choices: jail, an early death, or graduating high school--and you know she's telling the cold, hard truth. That's when we learn of the Baraka School in Kenya, East Africa, where 20 African American boys (ages 12 and 13) are chosen each year to enter a transformative two-year course of schooling, away from their families in Baltimore. The purpose of the school, in part,! is to demonstrate that the toxic environment of Baltimore, an! d its ne gative impact on the self-esteem of ghetto residents, can be reversed by removing these boys to Baraka, where a strict regimen of classes and responsibilities has an immediate, if not always permanent, beneficial effect.
We follow several boys on this fascinating journey toward growth and renewal. Devon is an aspiring preacher with musical talent; Montrey is a troublemaker with a bad attitude, who dreams of a career in science; brother Richard and Romesh are both accepted into Baraka, and despite setbacks both flourish in the program. Codirectors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady capture their gradual awakening to a new way of living and a new outlook on life, and then comes bad news: Due to security concerns and regional politics, the Baraka program is suspended, and the boys must return to the bleakness of Baltimore. Have they changed for good? Will they find a way to earn their diplomas and have hope for their futures? The Boys of Baraka offers no easy answers, but ! in showing us a glimmer of hope against all odds, the film gains depth and power with a conditional happy ending. Uncertainty remains, but so does a palpable sense of achievement and self-improvement that could, on a grander scale of government and societal support, lead to a positive revolution in our school system, which currently offers a depressing shortage of options for our most underprivileged citizens. Without forcing its uplifting message, this exceptional documentary offers proof of a better way, if only enough people would step up and support it. --Jeff ShannonIronweed Film Club. This DVD includes: Feature Film * One Short * Directors' commentary interactive menus and DVD extras. The Boys of Baraka Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady * 2005 * 84 minutes. Ryan's Well Directed by Lalita Krishna * 2001 * 25 minutes. WINNER best documentary Chicago Int'l Film Festival 2005 WINNER best documentary Newport Int'l film festival 2005.Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Boys of Baraka is a 2005 documentary film produced and directed by filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (both of whom also made Jesus Camp in 2006). Twenty at-risk boys from Baltimore attend the seventh and eighth grades at a boarding school in Kenya. The documentary follows them in Kenya and in Baltimore, before and after attending the Baraka School in Kenya. It also mentions that 76% of African Americans in Baltimore do not graduate High School. Boys of Baraka reproduction Approx. Size: 11 x 17 Inches - 28cm x 44cm Style A mini poster print
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DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
Does it matter that the set has no bonus features? Maybe not so much. The bells and whistles of the Mad About You Collection were nice, but they don't compare to having a complete season's worth of episodes on DVD. We want Paul and Jamie, with their hilarious and touching quirks and chemistry, just as we watched them on TV. That's all we're saying. --David HoriuchiA cool cast of young stars is just one of the things you'll love about this hilarious comedy hit! On the first day at his new school, Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt -- HALLOWEEN: H2O, TV's "3RD Rock From The Sun") instantly falls for! Bianca (Larisa Oleynik -- THE BABY SITTERS CLUB), the gorgeou! s girl o f his dreams. The only problem is that Bianca is forbidden to date ... until her ill-tempered, completely un-dateable older sister Kat (Julia Stiles -- THE BOURNE IDENTITY, SAVE THE LAST DANCE) goes out too! In an attempt to solve his problem, Cameron singles out the only guy who could possibly be a match for Kat: a mysterious bad-boy (Heath Ledger -- A KNIGHT'S TALE, THE PATRIOT) with a nasty reputation of his own! Also featuring a hip soundtrack -- this witty comedy is a wildly entertaining look at exactly how far some guys will go to get a date!It's, like, Shakespeare, man! This good-natured and likeable update of The Taming of the Shrew takes the basics of Shakespeare's farce about a surly wench and the man who tries to win her and transfers it to modern-day Padua High School. Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) is a sullen, forbidding riot grrrl who has a blistering word for everyone; her sunny younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) is poised for high school stardom. Th! e problem: overprotective and paranoid Papa Stratford (a dryly funny Larry Miller) won't let Bianca date until boy-hating Kat does, which is to say never. When Bianca's pining suitor Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets wind of this, he hires the mysterious, brooding Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to loosen Kat up. Of course, what starts out as a paying gig turns to true love as Patrick discovers that underneath her brittle exterior, Kat is a regular babe. The script, by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, is sitcom-funny with peppy one-liners and lots of smart teenspeak; however, its cleverness and imagination doesn't really extend beyond its characters' Renaissance names and occasional snippets of real Shakespearean dialogue. What makes the movie energetic and winning is the formula that helped make She's All That such a big hit: two high-wattage stars who look great and can really act. Ledger is a hunk of promise with a quick grin and charming Aussie accent, and ! Stiles mines Kat's bitterness and anger to depths usually unkn! own in t een films; her recitation of her English class sonnet (from which the film takes its title) is funny, heartbreaking, and hopelessly romantic. The imperious Allison Janney (Primary Colors) nearly steals the film as a no-nonsense guidance counselor secretly writing a trashy romance novel. --Mark Englehart
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