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Kenya
v. Mean Streets of Baltimore
Boys of Baraka
Review
by Kam Williams
After
Born into Brothels won an Academy Award for Best
Documentary, it was only a matter of time before the imitators
came along. That film chronicled the efforts of a couple of
fledgling filmmakers to improve the lot of some Calcutta street
urchins whose mothers were all prostitutes.
Conveniently
borrowing Born into Brothels’ reliance on the letter
“B” for alliteration, Boys of Baraka follows similar
efforts to save about 20 adolescent underachievers from
Baltimore by shipping them off to an experimental,
academically-oriented school located in rural Kenya. I hesitate
to review this film at all, because it frequently struck false
notes, though presenting itself as a documentary.
Scene
after scene seems staged, starting with the recruitment sales
pitch delivered in the auditorium of a ghetto-based middle
school where we witness a counselor attempting to scare 12
year-olds into the study abroad program by inappropriately
suggesting that they have only three prospects in life: prison,
a casket or a high school diploma.
In
another equally unlikely tableau, we see the mother of two
applicants worrying that if only one of her sons is accepted,
the child left behind will grow up to be a killer. Throughout
this highly-exploitative production, the children appear to be
playing to the camera in a rather unnatural manner, as if
they’ve been coached prior to filming.
I
even suspect that scenes which were supposedly shot before the
students left for Africa were actually re-enactments made after
their return. Worst of all is the picture’s overall suggestion
that because the Baltimore schools are failing black youths,
these boys would be better off in Africa, away from their
families and in the care of non-native whites for two school
years, boarding at an institution without most modern
conveniences.
Sorry,
but Boys of Baraka is a disingenuous docu-drama which
fudges the truth in service of an infuriating, self-serving
agenda, namely, accolades and awards for the film itself, and at
the expense of accuracy or improving the lot of the young souls
sacrificed in the process.
Poor (0 stars) / Unrated / Running time: 84 minutes /
Distributor: ThinkFilm
If you like this review consider making a donation
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Goodbye
City Streets, Hello African Wilderness
The Boys of Baraka
Movie
Review by Stephen Holden
The Boys of Baraka
gives a poignant human face to an
alarming statistic: 76 percent of black male students in
Baltimore city schools do not graduate from high school. The
documentary, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, tells you
why. A toxic poor-neighborhood environment destroys hope and
undermines self-esteem.
This setting, from which a group of Baltimore middle-school
students are extracted and sent to a school in the African
wilderness, is the same nihilistic street culture portrayed on
the HBO series "The Wire."
In this experimental program 20 "at risk" 12- and
13-year-old black male students are transported 10,000 miles to
the Baraka School in rural Kenya. Founded in 1996 on a 150-acre
ranch where there is no television or full-time electricity, it
offers academic instruction and strict but gentle discipline in
an environment where giraffes and zebras roam. Children who
complete the two-year program have a high success rate when
applying for entrance at the city's most competitive high
schools.
Early in the film, a straight-talking recruiter for the school
tells an assembly of prospective students that their futures
point to one of three options: an orange jumpsuit and "nice
bracelets" (prison), a black suit and a brown box (an early
death) or a black cap and gown and a diploma. Asked what would
become of her two sons, Richard and Romesh, if one were accepted
and the other not, their mother bluntly declares that one would
become a king and the other a killer. (Both are accepted.)
The Boys of Baraka
follows four of the students
chosen in 2002, during their first year away from home. In
addition to Richard and Romesh, we meet Devon, who is musically
inclined and dreams of becoming a preacher, and Montrey, a
troublemaker who hopes for a career in science.
As the film follows a month-by-month chronology, the boys
visibly flourish. Romesh, who initially tries to run away, stays
and makes the honor roll. Montrey learns to control his temper.
Richard, who reads at second-grade level when he arrives,
composes and recites a poem, "I Will Survive,"
which describes his new-found optimism. The boys play soccer and
climb to the top of nearby Mount Kenya. They meet Africans and
marvel at their sense of unity.
The movie seems headed in a predictably inspirational direction
until the boys return to Baltimore for their summer vacation and
encounter the old stresses and temptations. Then sad news
arrives. Because of regional politics and threats to its
security, the Kenya school must suspend operation. Both the
students and the families are crushed and angry. One father
bitterly observes that his son has a better chance of being
killed on a Baltimore street corner than in a terrorist attack
in Africa. A question is asked but never answered: why can't the
program be relocated closer to Baltimore?
As the movie follows the four into the future and they deal with
their disappointment and try to make the best of the year they
had, the filmmakers seem as frustrated as the subjects. But the
movie still manages to come up with a conditional happy ending.
The Boys of Baraka is so rich that you wish there
were more of it. Instead of detailed examinations of each boy's
progress, it has time only to assemble bits and pieces of
information as it jumps forward. Almost nothing is said about
the school itself, its origins, its financing and its staff.
But the film's message is clear and pointed: If you take the boy
out of the poor neighborhood, you stand a good chance of taking
the despair and hopelessness of the poor neighborhood out of the
boy.
The Boys of Baraka: Produced and directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady; directors
of photography, Marco Franzoni and Tony Hardmon; edited by Enat
Sidi; music by J. J. McGeehan; released by ThinkFilm. Running
time: 84 minutes. This film is not rated.
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The black cinematographer's
rebuttal
As the cinematographer on the documentary,
The Boys of Baraka I found Kam Williams’ review shamefully
inaccurate. His snide remark that the filmmakers were somehow
mimicking the title of last year’s Academy Award Winner for
Best Documentary, Born Into Brothels, speaks more to his
own cynical thought processes than to the true intentions of the
filmmakers.
Williams repeatedly implies that many of the
scenes in the movie were staged going so far as to speculate
that, “scenes supposedly shot before the students left for
Africa were actually re-enactments made after the students
returned.” First of all even if one were to attempt to
re-enact scenes that take place one year prior the viewer would
immediately recognize the incongruities. We began filming the
boys in Baltimore during their 6th grade summer and it is
obvious that the boys at 11 and 12 years old do not look, sound,
nor behave like the young men who returned to Baltimore a year
later.
Secondly, the directors (Heidi Ewing and
Rachel Grady) were not “coaching” the boys, their parents,
or anyone else who appears in the movie.
The Boys of Baraka is a documentary not a reality TV program. Reality television
shows are highly scripted and shot in a couple of months, we
shot for two and a half years with no sign as to where the story
might take us. If Mr. Williams had the inclination to follow a
group of subjects for two to three years he too would discover
that his subjects would tell their own stories in their own
words. This story
required patience, care and a willingness to listen and learn,
no scripting was necessary
As an African-American man who has spent over
fifteen years documenting the issues affecting our communities
the most disturbing question for me is what compelled Mr.
Williams to make such insulting accusations towards two
filmmakers who have devoted three years of their lives to
exposing this important issue affecting our young people.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Williams attempted
to discredit the veracity of the movie and by extension the good
name of the boys and their families. The good news is that this
film is already beginning to spark change. Since viewing The
Boys of Baraka Mayor O’Malley of Baltimore, his staff, and
the SEED foundation are exploring the development of a Baltimore
based boarding school for children underperforming in the
traditional public school setting. Perhaps Mr. Williams should
consider making a donation. -- Tony Hardmon
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To the Editor:
Having spent over 3 years of our lives making
The Boys of Baraka we were shocked and dismayed by Kam Williams bizarre
“review” of our documentary. It is sensational and
irresponsible reporting to lodge lies and accusations such
as these against us – and by association – against
the families and kids in this film.
Why would any writer with any sense of ethics write such cruel
and outrageous things –and why would The Black Star News
print them – without even bothering to phone either one
the films directors to check the facts? Since none of the proper
steps were taken to include the facts and the article is already
in circulation, we find it necessary to answer these
accusations, as base and untrue as they are.
None – not one frame – of The Boys of Baraka is
scripted, staged or re-enacted. Every single scene in this film
was captured as part of the 3 years of shooting and 350 hours of
tape that were the result. The kids were themselves: their
wonderful dynamic 12 year-old selves Every scene happens in the
order it was filmed. To make it perfectly clear: scenes in the
film that take place before the kids go to Africa were filmed
before the kids went to Africa. Scenes that take place in Africa
were filmed in Africa. Scenes that take place when the children
return home were filmed after the children returned home. No
smoke, no mirrors, no coaching, no reality—TV elements. Just
patience and trust and friendship that we enjoyed and continue
to enjoy with the subjects of the film.
In one of the more petty claims in the article, Kam calls us
“imitators” of Born into Brothels, a wonderful
documentary film that addresses the plight of children in India.
We started filming in March 2002, two years before Brothels was
released. Additionally, anyone who knows anything about the life
of a documentary filmmaker knows the enormous amount of time and
finances (our own for much of the production before The
Corporation for Public Broadcasting helped us finish the film)
that go into a production like this. To even suggest that a
filmmaker sees a good doc and rushes off to make one just like
it is sorely mistaken, especially since it takes many years from
start to finish!
Also,
to imply that we even used the letter “B” in the film’s
title in order to achieve the same success as
The Boys of Baraka is just cheap, silly and laughable: a man with an
agenda grasping at straws to make an ill-informed point.
Sincerely, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Directors,
The Boys of Baraka
posted 3 December 2005
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update 4 August 2008 |
