Review of The Boys of Baraka

Poinently directed with acute, subtle observations and concise editing to poetically enhance the film to a haunting degree, the filmmakers come straight from the heart on this, one of the better put together documentary's of the year. Capturing a few select Baltimore inner city youths leaving their homes for an African year of schooling with the special Baraka program, the metaphor effectively paints a larger canvas in dealing with the issues of the hopelessness and apathy so many of our young inner city black male population experiences, along with the triumphs of spirit that redefine those very established patterns. This documentary articulates these themes in a very non-preachy way that helps sustain it's inspirational message to even the most cynical of viewers. One thing that did feel slightly condescending to the film's true message (in the fact that it feels powerless instead of empowering), is the black and white portrayal of Baltimore-vs-Kenya in the sense that Baltimore was nothing more then a cesspool of crime and hatred and Kenya was nothing but pure harmony- two highly agreeable, but cartoon cutout archetypes that serve the film well, but undermine the theme in retrospect. Whatever irony or poetic gestures the filmmakers try to artificially induce, the boys continuously slap down with their unfiltered honesty. The kids who are the subjects of the film are quite simply more charismatic then the majority of people (scripted or non) that grace our screens, espousing words of wisdom, on the fly jokes, and unfiltered expressions that could not be delivered in a more convincing way if it was take 87..The immersion the filmmakers had when following the boys for a year on their trip proves all the more effective when so often they are captured in such truthful moments of contradicting emotional vulnerability, as to completely resonate with the viewer regardless if they take interest in the theme and plot of this doc. While not opting to detail a lot of the specifics dealing with the program and the students attending and instead going for it's own poetic vision of what the trip represents, the overall effect is not wasted in this inspiring experience.