The Boys of Baraka

In the inner-city ghetto of Baltimore, Maryland—circa 2002—76% of all African-American males are failing to graduate with a high school diploma. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's The Boys of Baraka looks at an interesting alternative program: the Baraka School in Kenya, East Africa, where 20 African-American boys (ages 12 and 13) are chosen each year to enter a transformative two-year course of schooling, away from their families in Baltimore. The purpose of the school, in part, is to demonstrate that the toxic environment of ghetto life and its negative impact on self-esteem can be ameliorated and/or reversed at Baraka, where a strict regimen of classes and responsibilities has an immediate, if not always permanent, beneficial effect. We follow several boys on this fascinating journey toward growth and renewal: Devon, an aspiring preacher with musical talent; Montrey, a troublemaker with a bad attitude, who dreams of a career in science; and brothers Richard and Romesh, underachiever and academic star, respectively. After the first year the boys return to the bleakness of Baltimore for summer vacation. Have they changed? Do they have hope for the future? The Boys of Baraka offers no easy answers—especially after a late development throws the boys' fate up in the air—but it does convey a palpable sense of achievement and self-improvement that could, with real governmental and societal support, lead to a positive revolution in our school system, which currently offers a depressing shortage of options for our most underprivileged citizens. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, six deleted scenes (18 min.), a “Conversation with Bill Cosby” featurette (7 min.), a text update on the boys in the film, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a powerful documentary.] (J. Shannon)