My Family, My Neighborhood, My Story

Recruited by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families and trained in interviewing and videotaping techniques, three African-American women and a Thai-American teenager record their hopes and dreams, as well as those of their neighbors, in their low-income Milwaukee neighborhood where 45% of the residents are children and four-fifths of the families earn under $30,000 per year. Focusing on a neighborhood with one of the highest poverty rates in the country (with drug trafficking, gang activity, and violent crime being all too familiar characteristics), the expressed purpose of the documentary is to stimulate a local movement to help transform tough neighborhoods into family-supportive communities and to prove that low-income parents and caregivers differ very little from their wealthier counterparts when it comes to the hopes and dreams they harbor for their children. While the presence of the three African-American women attests to the heavily segregated community (and all are single mothers whose personal struggles have instilled a strong religious and civic-minded commitment to helping others), the women's similar social and cultural values (even when you include the Thai-American teenager) coupled with their workmanlike handling of the video camera makes for a rather repetitive hour of technically subpar viewing. Still, this documentary, for all its faults, would be a welcome resource in intercity libraries serving similar communities. Optional elsewhere. Aud: C, P. (A. Cantu)