''The Boys of Baraka'' is a 2005 documentary film produced and directed by filmmakers

Heidi Ewing Heidi Ewing is an American documentary filmmaker and the co-director of ''Jesus Camp'', '' The Boys of Baraka'', '' 12th & Delaware'', ''DETROPIA'', ''Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You'' (Sundance Film Festival), '' One of Us'' (Toronto ...

and

Rachel Grady Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aunt ...

. The documentary follows twenty boys from

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Maryland who spend their seventh and eighth grade years at a rural

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

in northern Kenya. It premiered at the

South by Southwest Film Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...

in 2005, where it won the Special Jury Award for Documentary Feature. It was released theatrically in 2006 by ThinkFilms. The film also won a Gold Hugo at the 2005 Chicago Film Festival for Best Documentary and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent or Foreign Film. The film was shortlisted for the 2006 Academy Awards. and nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Programming.

Synopsis

Twenty “at risk” 12-year-old boys from inner-city Baltimore leave home to attend the 7th and 8th grade at Baraka, an experimental boarding school located in Kenya, East Africa. Here, faced with a strict academic and disciplinary program as well as the freedom to be normal teenage boys, these brave kids began the daunting journey towards putting their lives on a fresh path. ''The Boys of Baraka'' focuses on four boys: Devon, Montrey, Richard and his brother Romesh. Their humor and explicit truthfulness give intimate insight into their optimistic plans, despite the tremendous obstacles they face both at home and in school. Through extensive time with the boys in Baltimore and in Africa, the film captures the kids’ amazing journey and how they fare when they are forced to return to the difficult realities of their city. The film zeros in on kids that society has given up on–boys with every disadvantage, but who refuse to be cast off as “throw-aways.”

Background

Founded by the private Abell Foundation in 1996, the Baraka School — "baraka" means "blessing" in Kiswahili, the native spoken language of eastern Africa — was designed to give "at-risk" African-American boys from Baltimore a chance to learn academically and grow personally in an environment far removed from their troubled neighborhoods. Without television, Game Boys and fast food, and exposed to the hardworking and socially rich life of rural Africans, the boys are given a more disciplined structure and the kind of educational attention (a five-to-one student-teacher ratio) normally reserved for better-heeled private schools. ''The Boys of Baraka'' is a co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS), produced in association with American Documentary , POV . The film was released theatrically in 2006 by the now defunct ThinkFilm.

References

External links

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Film Review on AALBC.comAdditional Scenes on PBS.orgUpdate on the Boys on PBS.orgLoki Films
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boys Of Baraka, The 2005 films American documentary films Films shot in Baltimore Films shot in Kenya POV (TV series) films Documentary films about children Documentary films about education Education in Baltimore Education in Kenya 2005 documentary films Films directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady 2005 directorial debut films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films