Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Chalk

This is topic Chalk in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 09-29-2007, 04:13 PM:

As a High School teacher, I had to see this film.

This is a "fake" documentary about a typical American high school from the teachers point of view. There is a new teacher struggling with the art of teaching, a music teacher who finds herself promoted to administration, a somewhat pushy female gym teacher and a host of others.

This film really captures the tone of a high school. I could see qualities of many of my colleagues in this film. My wife, the elementary principal, also identified with the struggles and trials as the year moved on.

This is a very small inexpensive film. It was shown on the pre-show projector from a standard DVD (you could even see when the PLAY button was pushed!), but it looked pretty good on the 20' screen. It was strange to see the trailers in 35mm, then change over to DVD.

It's a pleasant little movie that will really connect with teachers. The theatre running this film sent out 2-for-1 vouchers to local high schools during the second week of the run.

The most realistic look at American schools is still the 4th season of THE WIRE, where some of the story took place in a Baltimore Middle School.