The Boys of Baraka

One of my splurges of the season: a subscription to Hot Docs' Doc Soup series.

The Boys of Baraka, the first film of the series, was screened at the Bloor Cinema last night to a packed house. Statistics show that 75% African-American boys in Baltimore do not graduate from high school. Each year, twenty at-risk youth in Baltimore (12- and 13 years of age) are selected to attend the Baraka School in Kenya for two years, with hopes that they will return to the United States, instilled with the confidence to lead better lives, away from the ghetto.

I have never seen a film that has kept me on the brink of tears for its entire length -- tears of happiness alternating with tears of sadness. Or maybe it wasn't really that sad and I was just weepy in light of recent events in my personal life. I am fairly certain that this was one of my favourite films this year -- and I really hope it gets some kind of commercial release in Toronto. I am really looking forward to the next installment in the Doc Soup series, Cowboy del amor.