Filmmakers Janine Foster McKenna and Stephanie Young Rosen weave a compelling narrative around a husband-and-wife team of educators who struggle to keep their charter school open and their students who have no other option for an education. And it packs quite a punch.
While the educator's feisty, tough-love approach to running her school during the threat of closure and challenging her at-risk students to take responsibility for their own futures drives the narrative, and frankly inspires, it is the filmmakers' deft weaving of several key student's stories that brings emotional weight and a very real sense of urgency to the proceedings. There are life and death stakes here, and the documentary's fly-on-the-wall style intermingled with candid interviews makes it palpable.
"Unschooled: Save Our Future" bears witness to our country's failed education system as well as shows there do exist at-risk teens who deeply want more than anything to better themselves and rise above the limitations imposed by their environment.
Highly recommended.