Goodbye City Streets, Hello African Wilderness

By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: November 30, 2005

"The Boys of Baraka" gives a poignant human face to an
alarming statistic: 76 percent of black male students in
Baltimore city schools do not graduate
from high school. The documentary, directed by Heidi Ewing
and Rachel Grady, tells you why. A toxic poor-neighborhood
environment destroys hope and undermines self-esteem.

This setting, from which a group of Baltimore
middle-school students are extracted and sent to a school in
the African wilderness, is the same nihilistic street
culture portrayed on the HBO series "The Wire."

In this experimental program 20 "at risk" 12- and
13-year-old black male students are transported 10,000 miles
to the Baraka School in rural Kenya. Founded in 1996 on a
150-acre ranch where there is no television or full-time
electricity, it offers academic instruction and strict but
gentle discipline in an environment where giraffes and
zebras roam. Children who complete the two-year program have
a high success rate when applying for entrance at the city's
most competitive high schools.

Early in the film, a straight-talking recruiter for the
school tells an assembly of prospective students that their
futures point to one of three options: an orange jumpsuit
and "nice bracelets" (prison), a black suit and a brown box
(an early death) or a black cap and gown and a diploma.
Asked what would become of her two sons, Richard and Romesh,
if one were accepted and the other not, their mother bluntly
declares that one would become a king and the other a
killer. (Both are accepted.)

"The Boys of Baraka" follows four of the students chosen
in 2002, during their first year away from home. In addition
to Richard and Romesh, we meet Devon, who is musically
inclined and dreams of becoming a preacher, and Montrey, a
troublemaker who hopes for a career in science.

As the film follows a month-by-month chronology, the boys
visibly flourish. Romesh, who initially tries to run away,
stays and makes the honor roll. Montrey learns to control
his temper. Richard, who reads at second-grade level when he
arrives, composes and recites a poem, "I Will
Survive," which describes his new-found
optimism. The boys play soccer and climb to the top of
nearby Mount Kenya. They meet Africans and marvel at their
sense of unity.

The movie seems headed in a predictably inspirational
direction until the boys return to Baltimore for their
summer vacation and encounter the old stresses and
temptations. Then sad news arrives. Because of regional
politics and threats to its security, the Kenya school must
suspend operation. Both the students and the families are
crushed and angry. One father bitterly observes that his son
has a better chance of being killed on a Baltimore street
corner than in a terrorist attack in Africa. A question is asked but
never answered: why can't the program be relocated closer to
Baltimore?

As the movie follows the four into the future and they
deal with their disappointment and try to make the best of
the year they had, the filmmakers seem as frustrated as the
subjects. But the movie still manages to come up with a
conditional happy ending.

"The Boys of Baraka" is so rich that you wish there were
more of it. Instead of detailed examinations of each boy's
progress, it has time only to assemble bits and pieces of
information as it jumps forward. Almost nothing is said
about the school itself, its origins, its financing and its
staff.

 But the film's message is clear and pointed: If you take
the boy out of the poor neighborhood, you stand a good
chance of taking the despair and hopelessness of the poor
neighborhood out of the boy.

The Boys of Baraka

Opens today in Manhattan.

Produced and directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady;
directors of photography, Marco Franzoni and Tony Hardmon;
edited by Enat Sidi; music by J. J. McGeehan; released by
ThinkFilm. At the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, west
of Avenue of the Americas, South Village. Running time: 84
minutes. This film is not rated.