Teaser (Final)

Fourth, and final, teaser trailer for my new film. The film will be released online August 22nd.

Teaser (Coliseum)

Third teaser trailer for my new film. Fourth, and final, teaser will go up May 22nd.

Teaser (Look)

Second teaser (of four) for my upcoming film. Next teaser will go up on May 15th.

Teaser (Jersey)

First teaser (of four) for my latest documentary. I will post a new one each Sunday.

Why "Waiting for Superman" is BS

This month I'll be part of a panel discussion at the University of Alabama after a screening of the documentary "Waiting for Superman."

Here is a general overview of my feelings about the film:

- The film does an excellent job of documenting the utter desperation low-income families feel when it comes to a lack of good options for their children's education.

- The filmmakers interview a billionaire (Bill Gates), a multi-millionaire (Geoffrey Canada), superintendents, principals, parents, and students. The one group not represented in the film? Teachers.

- The average person (i.e. my mom) leaves the theater thinking two things: 1) Unions are the problem. 2) Charters are the solution. The film quickly glosses over four significant facts related to these two issues:

1. Only 17% of charters are more successful than their corresponding public schools. Most charters perform worse than their corresponding public schools.
2. Unions give teachers basic protections that they need and deserve. If unions were the problem than Mississippi, a right to work state (no unions), would be first in the nation when it comes to education. Instead, Mississippi is dead last.
3. The teachers of Finland, which the film accurately points out is the highest performing country in the world when it comes to education, are 100% unionized.
4. The director of the film belongs to a union.

- The film bashes the idea of "rubber rooms" where teachers facing a disciplinary review get paid a full salary while sitting around reading the newspaper. Why is this a bad thing? You should have a review before getting fired (as many of our MTC teachers who have been summarily non-renewed can attest) and you shouldn't be in the classroom while waiting for said review.

- The film makes it seem that the process of firing teachers is second only to climbing Mt. Everest. In fact, the process is fairly simple. Several observations and a plan of improvement. How is this unfair? A principal should not be able to arbitrarily fire a teacher (as many MTC teachers who have been summarily non-renewed can attest) and a teacher should be given the chance to improve.

- The problem IS teacher quality but the solutions are not more charters and breaking unions. The solution is to pay teachers significantly more money (starting salary of $100,000 and a ceiling of $250,000). This dramatically increases the talent pool of incoming teachers and allows a district many more options when hiring teachers. How will states pay for this? Easy. Increase taxes.

- A few other solutions while I'm at it...

• A National Curriculum with national standards.
• A huge bonus (say $30,000) for veteran teachers to teach in critical-need districts.
• A longer training model for new teachers. Simulate the residency component of medical school with new teachers interning for two years in veteran teachers' classrooms.
• Universal Pre-K for all families starting at age zero.
• Universal health care for all.
• Get rid of standardized testing (although I reserve the right to change my mind about this).
• Schools run as a partnership where the teachers elect their principal. Teachers and administrators should be equals.

If you want to hear more come out to the Honors College at the University of Alabama on March 23rd.

More on why "Waiting for Superman" is BS:

NOT Waiting for Superman

New York Review of Books

Professor Linda Darling-Hammond

Grading "Waiting for Superman"

How Finland is kicking our a**

The effects of Unions

Why "Waiting for Superman" is Bullshit

This month I'll be part of a panel discussion at the University of Alabama after a screening of the documentary "Waiting for Superman."

Here is a general overview of my feelings about the film:

- The film does an excellent job of documenting the utter desperation low-income families feel when it comes to a lack of good options for their children's education.

- The filmmakers interview a billionaire (Bill Gates), a multi-millionaire (Geoffrey Canada), superintendents, principals, parents, and students. The one group not represented in the film? Teachers.

- The average person (i.e. my mom) leaves the theater thinking two things: 1) Unions are the problem. 2) Charters are the solution. The film quickly glosses over four significant facts related to these two issues:

1. Only 17% of charters are more successful than their corresponding public schools. Most charters perform worse than their corresponding public schools.
2. Unions give teachers basic protections that they need and deserve. If unions were the problem than Mississippi, a right to work state (no unions), would be first in the nation when it comes to education. Instead, Mississippi is dead last.
3. The teachers of Finland, which the film accurately points out is the highest performing country in the world when it comes to education, are 100% unionized.
4. The director of the film belongs to a union.

- The film bashes the idea of "rubber rooms" where teachers facing a disciplinary review get paid a full salary while sitting around reading the newspaper. Why is this a bad thing? You should have a review before getting fired (as many of our MTC teachers who have been summarily non-renewed can attest) and you shouldn't be in the classroom while waiting for said review.

- The film makes it seem that the process of firing teachers is second only to climbing Mt. Everest. In fact, the process is fairly simple. Several observations and a plan of improvement. How is this unfair? A principal should not be able to arbitrarily fire a teacher (as many MTC teachers who have been summarily non-renewed can attest) and a teacher should be given the chance to improve.

- The problem IS teacher quality but the solutions are not more charters and breaking unions. The solution is to pay teachers significantly more money (starting salary of $100,000 and a ceiling of $250,000). This dramatically increases the talent pool of incoming teachers and allows a district many more options when hiring teachers. How will states pay for this? Easy. Increase taxes.

- A few other solutions while I'm at it...

• A National Curriculum with national standards.
• A huge bonus (say $30,000) for veteran teachers to teach in critical-need districts.
• A longer training model for new teachers. Simulate the residency component of medical school with new teachers interning for two years in veteran teachers' classrooms.
• Universal Pre-K for all families starting at age zero.
• Universal health care for all.
• Get rid of standardized testing (although I reserve the right to change my mind about this).
• Schools run as a partnership where the teachers elect their principal. Teachers and administrators should be equals.

If you want to hear more come out to the Honors College at the University of Alabama on March 23rd.

More on why "Waiting for Superman" is bullshit:

NOT Waiting for Superman

New York Review of Books

Professor Linda Darling-Hammond

Grading "Waiting for Superman"

How Finland is kicking our ass

Interview at the Oxford Film Festival

Oxford Film Fest

My short documentary "The South Will Rise Again" was awarded "Best Mississippi Documentary" at this year's Oxford Film Festival. You can see my acceptance speech here:

And you can see the actual film here:

The Ten Best Documentaries of All-Time

Welcome to (drumroll please) Ben Guest's List of The Ten Best Documentaries of ALL-TIME.

1) "Hoop Dreams"

Many people think the central theme of "Hoop Dreams" as the pursuit of the American Dream. They are wrong. The theme of the film is the American Family: the love, the jealousy, the hope, the shame, the faith, the hurt and the triumph of two American families.

Side-Notes:

-The film does what the documentary format in general demonstrates so well: the passage of time. We get to know and care about the characters as they age and succeed and fail right in front of us.

-The directors and producers of "Hoop Dreams" were lucky in (at least) two ways:

-First, the two 8th graders they chose to follow (Arthur Agee and William Gates) turned into outstanding basketball players (I wonder if there were other players initially filmed but that didn't make the final cut).

-Second, both Arthur and William are charismatic and interesting on-screen (and in different ways). It's like lightening struck twice.

-As an aspiring documentary filmmaker watching "Hoop Dreams" is like what watching "Citizen Kane" must have been for Hollywood directors circa 1941. It sets the bar impossibly high. You wonder if anything can ever be that good again.

-My favorite edit in the film is a cut from the coaches and players on the St. Joe's bus to the exact same shot of the coaches and players on the Garfield bus.

-I have a short documentary playing in this year's Oxford Film Festival. Turns out so does Peter Gilbert, one of the producers of "Hoop Dreams." I can't wait to meet him.

-The film was produced by Kartemquin Films, a great production company based in Chicago that has been making films examining social justice and societal inequity for 45 years. Follow them on Twitter here.


2) "Up Series"

Even more than "Hoop Dreams," in fact more than any film, the "Up" series documents the passage of time. Starting with a group of seven year olds and touching base with them every seven years for now more than forty years now ("56 Up" is scheduled to be released in 2012). We come to care deeply about the characters and find ourselves anticipating where the next film will find them.


3) "Murder on a Sunday Morning"

I've only seen this once, several years ago, but I have never forgotten the power of it. A black teenager arrested and forced to confess to a crime he didn't commit. More than anything I remember the ending and an incredible moment, captured on film, between father and son...


4) "To Be and To Have"

As a teacher this is the best film (narrative or documentary) about the skill of teaching.

5) "Bowling for Columbine"

The best of Moore's many great films. Two of my friends here in Mississippi sometimes call me the Michael Moore of "Ole Miss" because of my short film "Ten Dollars an Hour."

6) "Capturing the Friedmans"

Memory. This movie is about the quality of memory. How can so many people have such different memories of events that may or may not have taken place?

7) "Neshoba"

Saw this at the Oxford Film Festival in 2009 and was blown away. The directors gained access to all parties involved in one of the country's most notorious civil rights murders. Includes one of the greatest final shots in film history.

8) "Harlan County USA"

Classic film about the lengths to which the wealthy exploit and dehumanize, in every way possible, the workers who created that wealth.

9) "Heart of the Game"

Like "Hoop Dreams" this film follows a basketball player over the course of five years. As a former basketball coach I was amazed by the decision of the coach to play, in the state championship game, every single player on the team. What a wonderful decision and a wonderful lesson for his players.

10) "The Beginning"

"The Phantom Menace" sucked. This making-of film, included on the DVD, is fantastic. A great example of Direct Cinema as the filmmakers follow George Lucas and company through four years of production.


Honorable Mention (in no particular order):

Once Brothers
The Cove
LaLee’s Kin

Truth or Dare
Deliver us From Evil
An Inconvenient Truth
4 Little Girls
When We Were Kings
Heart of Darkness
Gimme Shelter
Touching the Void
Gasland
Exit through the Gift Shop
Pumping Iron
General Idi Amin Dada

Notes:

-I did not include television mini-series productions like "Eyes on the Prize" or "Baseball."

-I did not include concert films like "Kings of Comedy."

-In preparation for making this list I re-watched:

-"Hoop Dreams"

-"Capturing the Friedmans"

-"Neshoba"

-"Heart of the Game"

-"The Beginning"

-I've seen "Bowling for Columbine" more than once.

-I have seen the "Up" series, "Murder on a Sunday Morning," "To Be and To Have," and "Harlan County USA" only once.

-Several documentary "classics" that I have not seen and, thus, are not on the list:

Shoah
Titticut Follies
Crumb
Grizzly Man
March of the Penguins
Winged Migration

MLK at Riverside Church