Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's documentary "Boys of Baraka" is about a group of "at risk" "inner city" youths, which is to say, poor black boys from Baltimore, who are selected to attend a boarding school in Kenya for two years.
Once in Kenya, the boys hike in the wilderness and take in the amazing scenery of the African Bush, which includes elephants, zebra, and giraffes. In one touching, funny scene the boys are taped for a video to send to their family. "There's something better than a cat: a hedgehog!" one kid says, holding the creature up to the camera. The boys also get one-on-one attention from teachers for the first time in their lives. "It's just mindboggling nobody ever noticed that Richard wasn't learning anything," says one shocked instructor, placing the eight grader at the second grade level.
I know a thing or two about culture shock, but I can't imagine how completely disorienting and liberating this radical change of environment must have been for the kids. After the first year, the boys return to Baltimore for what is supposed to be a summer vacation, but they never get to go back to Africa because of the "security situation." The war on terror keeps the Baraka school closed. The parents are heartbroken; so are the children. "Bin Laden," one kid says. "Where he at?"
It's troubling to watch the boys of Baraka reacclimate to life in Baltimore, to the mothers in prison, the drug deals on the corner, the burnt-out playgrounds. They disperse to different public high schools, keenly aware of the opportunity that has been taken from them. The most revealing quote of the film comes from a distraught kid who doesn't understand why he had to go to Kenya to get something resembling a real education: "Why can't we do it in Baltimore?" This simple observation hits home. The richest country in the world is treating its underprivileged kids with such disregard that a private wilderness outpost becomes their best hope. And if American TV journalism were doing its job, reportage such as this would be regularly playing on major networks instead of limited runs at art house theaters.
"Boys of Baraka" has made the short list of fifteen documentaries eligible for nomination for the 2006 Academy Awards.
