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The Boys of Baraka Review

Maybe I'm biased as I work with at-risk adolescents, the more I lived in Kenya for a year, also … But this documentary encapsulates an incredible idea that I could not believe easily be replicated if people are really trapped behind the potential of such an idea. In the transmission is a group of young people in Africa is on a very large scale, this could be done on a smaller scale and produce very similar results. Below us, from our comfort zones tends to be a breeding ground for us to break the rocks andexpanding the new roots to produce new fruits.

Since we do not hear of this film in the conventional manner, but rather randomly, I did not expect this idea to start a stretch, and the trend of environmental protection has become. However, I hope to replicate this idea a day. I think we'll see what happens.

While this film is that throughout history has not been completed during the disappointing situation (due to unforeseen circumstances, through no fault of the documentary), whichHistory is exciting and brings hope to a dark future for many young people who are victims of their environment / situation.

The Boys of Baraka Feature

• This documentary follows several young and courageous boys through three crucial years of their youth, joining them in their journey across the ocean and towards opportunity. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES Rating: NR Age: 821575548052 UPC: 821575548052 Manufacturer No: TF-54805

The Boys of Baraka Overview

Don’t miss the true coming-of-age story that follows a group of extraordinary 12-year-old boys from the most violent ghettos of Baltimore to an experimental boarding school 10,000 miles away in rural Kenya. An emotionally explosive journey shot over three years, the film zeroes in on a group of brave kids who are willing to cross the ocean to chase an opportunity – boys with a fierce determination to fight the label of “throw-away.”

Winner! Best Documentary
Chicago Film Festival 2005
Atlanta Film Festival 2005
Newport International Film Festival 2005

Winner! Audience Award
Silverdocs Film Festival 2005
Woodstock Film Festival 2005

Winner! Special Jury Prize
SXSW Film Festival 2005

Short-listed for the Academy Award® nominations for Best Documentary Feature Film

The Boys of Baraka Specifications

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, and its negative 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 Shannon

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Feb 27, 2010 11:05:30