One of the great things about the credits at the end of a film is it lets you compose yourself (if it's a 'weepie') before the lights go on. At the end of the UK premiere of Boys of Baraka, the credits weren't long enough for many of the audience.
The Baraka project took a selected group of 12 to 13 year old boys from a very disadvantaged area of Baltimore and put them in a boarding school in Kenya for two years. In Baltimore, they had had very little future - often one or both parents in jail, no jobs to look forward to, most of the people they met criminals or drug dealers. Their only prospect was "the new jail that was being built." In Kenya they discovered a sense of themselves. They could just *be* 12 and 13 year old boys. No TV, no 24 hr electric, and 20 miles from the nearest town. They realise that native children their age are poorer, die more often, and have less advantages, but are happier, have a strong sense of community, and enjoy life more. When they return to Baltimore, the American children have found a different side of themselves - almost all those from the first intake subsequently graduate to High School.
But the film is not so much a traditional documentary of a successful school rescue project: it is an insight into the love and wonder within the most stereotypically wretched of children, the love and hopes their parents (even from prison) and the unfeigned emotion as they take stock of themselves and realise they can be something more than they previously expected of themselves. It tells of not giving up on someone, of having the skills, facilities and will to succeed.
A further challenge (or lesson from the movie, even if it's not mentioned) is for anyone who's ever spent any amount of time on their own in the outback, the desert or the wilderness and knows the value of having to face your own being with no modern distractions or fallbacks. It can be a powerful tool to self-development - not just for the disadvantaged youngster.
The Baraka project took a selected group of 12 to 13 year old boys from a very disadvantaged area of Baltimore and put them in a boarding school in Kenya for two years. In Baltimore, they had had very little future - often one or both parents in jail, no jobs to look forward to, most of the people they met criminals or drug dealers. Their only prospect was "the new jail that was being built." In Kenya they discovered a sense of themselves. They could just *be* 12 and 13 year old boys. No TV, no 24 hr electric, and 20 miles from the nearest town. They realise that native children their age are poorer, die more often, and have less advantages, but are happier, have a strong sense of community, and enjoy life more. When they return to Baltimore, the American children have found a different side of themselves - almost all those from the first intake subsequently graduate to High School.
But the film is not so much a traditional documentary of a successful school rescue project: it is an insight into the love and wonder within the most stereotypically wretched of children, the love and hopes their parents (even from prison) and the unfeigned emotion as they take stock of themselves and realise they can be something more than they previously expected of themselves. It tells of not giving up on someone, of having the skills, facilities and will to succeed.
A further challenge (or lesson from the movie, even if it's not mentioned) is for anyone who's ever spent any amount of time on their own in the outback, the desert or the wilderness and knows the value of having to face your own being with no modern distractions or fallbacks. It can be a powerful tool to self-development - not just for the disadvantaged youngster.