Films About Charter Schools

Coming soon to Netflix and theatres near you!  Screen these compelling movies at your school for a powerful PTA/PTO event.
Contact Nina Rubin, G-PAN Director. Nina can help you create a unique educational event for parents, teachers and community members.  nrubin@gacharters.org, 404-839-8903.

The Lottery, (80 minutes – Rated PG) This highly emotional documentary film by Madeleine Sackler, explores the struggles of four families from Harlem and the Bronx in the months leading up to a Lottery for admission to Harlem Success Academy, a high achieving public charter school. In a country where 58% of African American 4th graders are functionally illiterate, The Lottery uncovers the failures of the traditional public school system and reveals that hundreds of thousands of parents attempt to flee the system every year. The Lottery follows four of these families from Harlem and the Bronx who have entered their children in a charter school lottery. Out of thousands of hopefuls, only a small minority will win the chance of a better future. The Lottery makes the case that any child can succeed.

Waiting For Superman (102 minutes – Rated PG) directed by Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) opens in New York and Los Angeles on September 24, and nationwide in October, 2010. It examines the crisis of public education in the United States through multiple interlocking stories. Designed to start a national conversation, the movie aims to inspire everyone to create innovative and long-term solutions to help change the course of our kids’ lives for the better.

A Stone’s Throw: (20 minutes – Not Rated)  Parents in Mississippi care about their children’s education. But Mississippi parents don’t have options that are available to parents in more than 30 other states including Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana. In those states, some just a stone’s throw away, parents can choose to send their children to a “traditional” public school or a “charter” public school. Mississippi’s laws don’t allow that option – yet. A Stone’s Throw is a short film which demonstrates the desire of Mississippi parents, teachers, pastors, and students to have more public school options. It also features two charter public schools – one that is just across the Mississippi River in Helena, Arkansas, and one that is just across the state line in Memphis, Tennessee. Their methods are different, but their results are the same – successful students, fulfilled teachers, and satisfied parents!

The Cartel, (90 minutes – Not Rated) shows us our educational system like we’ve never seen it before. Behind every dropout factory, we discover, lurks a powerful, entrenched, and self-serving cartel. But The Cartel doesn’t just describe the problem. Balancing local storylines against interviews with education experts such as Clint Bolick (former president of Alliance for School Choice), Gerard Robinson (president of Black Alliance for Educational Options), and Chester Finn (president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute), The Cartel explores what dedicated parents, committed teachers, clear-eyed officials, and tireless reformers are doing to make our schools better for our kids.