AN AMERICAN PROMISE

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Images

Still from AN AMERICAN PROMISE, 12-year longitudinal documentary forthcoming from Rada Film Group

Budget

Raised to date: $175,000.00
Estimate to complete: $475,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $650,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 10/04/2009

Status

Production

Media Type

Video

Project End Use

Key Personnel

Joe Brewster
Co-Director / Co-Producer
For over a decade Joe Brewster has directed and produced stories that provoke thought about our complex multicultural world. His thought provoking narrative films and documentaries have challenged and inspired audiences across the globe and along the way garnered awards both domestically and internationally. His 1996 debut, THE KEEPER was screened at Toronto, Sundance and Cannes Film Festival and received a Spirit Award nomination. His work, distributed internationally on cable and in theatrical venues, has received numerous awards for his direction and production. Brewster is currently directing AN AMERICAN PROMISE, a recipient of both the Tribeca-All-Access and Sundance Documentary Fund prizes. PROMISE is a12-year documentary study of two African-American boys’ experiences at an elite prep school in New York City, scheduled for PBS broadcast in 2012.

Michèle Stephenson
Co-Director / Co-Producer
For over a decade Michèle Stephenson has produced non-fiction film and new media. She often uses her eclectic background and prior international experience as a human rights attorney to tackle stories on communities of color and human rights. As an early pioneer in the Web 2.0 revolution, Stephenson used video and the internet to structure human rights campaigns and train people from across the globe in video internet advocacy. Her work has appeared on PBS, Showtime, MTV and other broadcast, cable and digital outlets. Stephenson’s work has also screened at prestigious festivals, from Toronto and Sundance to the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.

Stephenson and her work have received international honors, including: Best Film Directed by a Woman of Color, ADFF; Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary, ABFF; Diversity Award, SilverDocs International Documentary Film Festival; and the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film and Digital Media..

Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)

The film has the potential to influence, educate and change people’s attitudes towards family relationships as well as broader questions of pedagogy, emotional development and educating our community.

We will develop an educational strategy that can seize the opportunity to reach a huge cross section of young men and boys of color and their families; the people most affected by the issues raised in the film. We have identified scholars, community youth groups, educators and parent organizations to partner with to create an innovative multimedia outreach campaign.

We have been approached by new media coalitions, which are interested in helping us develop an interactive new media prototype for the film within the next year. This will include a Web 3.0 site with streaming video and youth blogs from Idris and Seun. We would like to have this, as well as a comprehensive outreach plan in place as soon as possible to maximize visibility and effectiveness by incorporating AN AMERICAN PROMISE – the film and interactive web modules – into organizations’ and schools agendas, community involvement strategies and event planning as early as possible.

Funders

Name	Amount	Date
Sundance Documentary Fund	$35,000.00	01/01/2008
Ford Foundation	$50,000.00	01/01/2008
National Black Programming Consortium	$30,000.00	01/01/2007
Ford Foundation	$50,000.00	01/01/2006
New York State Council on the Arts	$10,000.00	01/01/2005

Location

254 Adelphi Street
Brooklyn, NY, 11205

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Short Synopsis

In 1999, two African American boys from Brooklyn entered kindergarten at the Dalton School - an elite prep school on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The documentary AN AMERICAN PROMISE follows the boys through their high school graduation in 2012, providing a rare glimpse into the social and emotional experiences that shape these boys into men.

Description/Treatment

AN AMERICAN PROMISE follows two African American boys from Brooklyn, Idris and Oluwaseun (Seun) for 12 years through their education at the elite Dalton School.

When the boys enter kindergarten Dalton has recently made a commitment to make their school community reflect the diversity of New York City itself. The film explores not only the successes and failures of the Dalton School’s program, but the specific effects the institution has on the social, emotional and intellectual development of African American boys.

In their early years among mostly white classmates, the boys reveal negative self-images. Idris wants to change his name, while Seun feels that he is not as intelligent as the other kids in class “who always know the answer and always raise their hands.”

As the boys grow older, their parents become concerned about the demanding academic workload and culture of the prep school.

Seun’s parents – busy working and raising 4 children – are very sensitive to the race issue at Dalton, but slowly start to realize that Oluwaseun’s problems are not just brought on by skin color. A diagnosis of dyslexia and attention deficit “problems” make schoolwork challenging for Seun. Idris tests well, but has trouble focusing and getting organized – the school begins to strongly insinuate that Idris is ADHD, a diagnosis his psychiatrist father and mother initially reject.

The end of 8th grade sees the boys’ educations take divergent paths. Idris will continue at Dalton, but Seun has been officially asked to leave the school – his academics did not make the cut. Seun enters Benjamin Banneker Academy, an Afro-Centric middle-ranked Brooklyn high school. While Dalton tries to embrace diversity, Banneker tries to cultivate a community recalling pre-integration African American schools. As high school begins, we witness these educational philosophies and how they affect the boys – now young men.

We are currently entering the 10th year of a 12-year production schedule. Sixty percent of principal photography is complete – we have shot over 350 hours of footage and are shooting an average of 50 hours of footage a year. In addition to a 6-minute trailer, we have put together a 20-minute sequence of selects from the middle school years. In October, an editor will begin editing the footage into a rough cut. The anticipated completion date of the film is Fall 2012.

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