Documentary Review

After a suggestion by Natalie, I picked "Waiting for Superman" as my documentary for this analysis/review.
The documentary is all about the American educational system, the failings many schools have, and the various attempts that there have been to address these failings.They address how home issues, bad teachers, ineffective methods, and ineffective schools all affect the academic and life success of students.
 I was very impressed with this documentary. The documentary managed to weave in both personal stories of kids trying to succeed in a school system that failed them, and statistics and facts about the current state of schools. This allowed the movie to both inform the viewer and to tell a story that could bring on emotions.The families followed are those of Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, mainly featuring their young children who are struggling to succeed.
The film included interviews with the families and with people involved in educating or education administration, B-roll of the schools being evaluated and B-roll of classrooms. One visual element that I found especially interesting were the interjections of cartoons and animated charts and graphs to show the statistical points being made. The movie also included archival footage of old schools and how they operated.
It also included a voice over narration from the film maker. The voice over was very helpful, since it gave a sense of cohesion to the film. The film also features quiet background music that set the tone for the different subjects. I thought this was interesting because while I was mostly unaware of the subtle music, when I did notice it, I found that it helped set a mood for different scenes. One example of this, is when the movie had a scene of the numbers being drawn for the different charter schools that the subjects of the film are applying for, the music set a very nervous and tense tone.
There were very few text slides, besides the text that was present was mostly included either in the graphics with statistics and in the final scene where the kids are finding out whether or not they are accepted to their charter schools of choice. The movie also ended with an interesting text feature, where the letters would shift into the new sentences down a set of lines that were being drawn along the screen. It was a very visually appealing effect.
I would recommend this documentary. It was very interesting to learn about the school system and very touching to hear about the stories of the children.
Waiting for "Superman"-102 minutes- PG