Hard Times at Douglass High



This is the new documentary from HBO Documentary Films about an inner-city Baltimore high school. It's definitely worth watching. If anything, it confirms everything we saw in Season Four (though it takes place in high school and the kids are much more well behaved than they were in Prez's class). You see characters that remind you of Snoop, of Namond and an English teacher who reminds you of Prez.

While the filmmakers wanted to make it to incriminate "No Child Left Behind," the film points to a singular direction for a lot of the problems in the schools: the lack of family-support. The teachers appear pretty dedicated, the staff committed and passionate. One of the most fascinating scenes was about "Parent's Night." The teachers said that, for a school of 1100 people, they only got 3-4 parents who would show up. This one young woman said she didn't know any body who lived with their mom and dad.

Amazing statistic: the school has 500 freshman and 200 sophomores. Wow! When did the families in these communities start to dissolve? I think this is something that wasn't addressed very much in "The Wire." Simon and co. were more interested in taking on the economic/political/social system as opposed to looking at how that affected the break down in family.

But how do you keep families together?

Looks the show has been a good stepping stone for many of its actors. That's what this short piece in New York magazine tells us. I didn't know they were making a movie based on Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." The book was so good though so I'm anxious to see it, especially now that Michael K. Williams will be in it.

The NY Mag piece links to lots of articles about "Wire" actors including one about Dennis Wise ("Cutty") working at a grocery co-op in Park Slope.

Also, Season One episodes are now available on iTunes for $1.99 each.