Something Within Me

A multiple-award winner at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Jerret Engle and Emma Joan Morris' inspiring documentary looks at a small Catholic grade school in the problem-ridden and poverty-stricken South Bronx area. Here, where drug deals and drive-by shootings are a feature of daily life in the community, sits St. Augustine's School of the Arts. In a second-grade classroom, almost all of the student's hands wave, anxious to called on--they're playing a rather advanced form of "Name That Tune," and each is eager to identify the snippet of music just played: a passage from Verdi's Aida. In another class, children read out loud from Reginald Rose's play 12 Angry Men. And, in yet another, seventh-graders' Alvin Crone and Thomas Hill are having an unusual duel: their weapons are trumpets and each tries to top the other in improvisational ingenuity. After nearly closing its doors in 1985, St. Augustine's regrouped and re-emerged as a school emphasizing arts and music. Something Within Me is the very exciting story from both the teachers and the students of how that transformation took place.While financially struggling, the school has nevertheless won the strong support of the community, as well as the devotion of the students. The basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic have not been scrapped, but are often taught in different contexts, and both enrollment and test scores have risen dramatically over the years. Something Within Me will make something within you smile and rekindle your hopes for a better future. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (Available from: Direct Cinema Ltd., P.O. Box 10003, Santa Monica, CA 90410; (800) 525-0000.)