The documentary race was interesting this last year though, because I believe that this was the snubbed film of the year. Just like in a best picture race where two similar films keep each other from winning. Or in the Golden Globes were two actors from the same film are nominated in the same category and neither win because of that. This year there were two documentaries about the Public School system that kept each other from getting nominated. In a category were there are actual messages being conveyed this is quite disappointing. Both were labeled as "Charter School Lottery" based documentaries, but I found that this wasn't really the case. The film The Lottery, immediately made itself available on netflix instant watch, itunes, and really campaigned to get it's story heard. This film on the other hand, didn't have a DVD release until well after the awards were over and didn't have screeners sent out. Pretty surprising considering that it was directed by Davis Guggenheim, who won the category with An Inconvenient Truth a few years ago.
So The Lottery is really more about the fight between Charter Schools and public schools, and it focuses on how PTA's and Teacher's Unions fight a charter school that takes over a failing public school. It is definitely focused on how unfair it is that those that want a good education are unable to get it. I felt that it failed to bring in many relevant statistics and pandered to the emotion of a few kids getting their "Ticket."
This film seemed to start the same way, introducing some inner city minority kids applying for charter schools. Darn I had seen this film already... but wait. It takes a turn and starts delving into why the system is screwed up. The lottery is still part of the film, but not the focus. The focus is on the inefficiencies of the public system. The fact that the vast majority of kids in wealthy suburbs aren't even prepared for college directly out of high school thanks to Tracking. It goes into how firing a teacher is nearly impossible thanks to powerful teachers unions that are so big they are hurting themselves without realizing it. Did you know it is easier for a public school teacher to get tenure than a college professor at a public university?
I really felt like I learned a lot from this film, I highly recommend this film to anyone with kids in the public school system. It does use a charter school director as it's main source of information, so I didn't feel like it gave both sides of the story, but documentaries really don't usually. Try and find this one.
Vote: 9/10
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566648/
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