
Independent Lens
Detropia
Detroit's most innovative people refuse to leave their building, even as the flames are rising.
A group of troubled boys in inner city Baltimore leaves home for the Baraka School, an experimental program located in rural Kenya, East Africa.
Heidi Ewing is the co-director of Jesus Camp, a provocative documentary on the Evangelical right that was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award. She and Rachel Grady recently premiered 12th & Delaware at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, made in collaboration with HBO, takes a candid look at the war between the pro-life and pro-choice factions.… Show more
Rachel Grady is a private investigator turned filmmaker. She is the co-director of the Emmy-nominated documentary The Boys of Baraka, which won the 2006 NAACP award for Outstanding Independent Film and aired on P.O.V. She and her directing partner Heidi Ewing followed with Jesus Camp, a startling chronicle of the Evangelical movement through the eyes of… Show more
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Devon, Montrey, Richard, and Romesh are just at that age — 12 and 13 years old — when boys start to become men. But in their hometown of Baltimore, one of the country’s most poverty-stricken cities for inner-city residents, African-American boys have a very high chance of being incarcerated or killed before they reach adulthood. The boys are offered an amazing opportunity in the form of the Baraka school, a project founded to break the cycle of violence through an innovative education program that literally removed young boys from low-performing public schools and unstable home environments. They travel with their classmates to rural Kenya in East Africa, where a teacher-student ratio of one to five, a strict disciplinary program and a comprehensive curriculum form the core of their new educational program. Boys of Baraka follows along with their journey, and examines each boy’s transformation during this remarkable time.
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