By Rebecca Rose

Thanks to The Lottery, I now have one of my favorite movie moments and quotes of all time:  “Barack Obama wears pants. And socks. And shoes.”

These words come from one of the captivating children in Madeline Sackler’s powerful new documentary, who eloquently sums up the film’s core stance better than I as a critic probably ever could. See, Barack Obama wears pants….so he should to, too.   And Barack Obama believes Charter Schools will save the American educational system.  So we should, too.

A deaf single mother, an African immigrant, a married couple who are union members themselves, and the wife of a convicted felon serving a life sentence; these are the parents of the four children who vie for a spot in the illustrious Harlem Success Charter School.  In a district where the public schools have appalling conditions that show no hope of ever changing, many parents find the option of charter schools a welcome new change.  But with only a few hundred openings and nearly 4000 applicants, demand far outweighs supply. The school (by law) must hold a lottery to select new candidates. Harlem Success chooses make their lottery public, to draw attention to the crisis at hand.  If 4000 families in Harlem and the Bronx see a need for a drastic, immediate change to this system, then what exactly is standing in their way?

Why unions, of course. And a deep-seeded fear of gentrification. And politics. And ACORN.  Sackler’s take on the material is blunt and direct. There is no mistaking where she as a director stands on this issue…unions take a harsh beating, as does New York’s deeply entrenched political landscape.  More importantly, she never lets the audience forget the power or the significance of what’s at stake here, behind the rhetoric and the posturing.

The best part about the film is the scenes with the families themselves.  Sackler’s strength is when she lets the cameras roll. Mothers fret, fathers discipline, and children take all of this with the kind of naïve, uncorrupted charm that makes it all the more painful to see what’s really at stake.   There is raw power in these moments.  As a diehard documentary enthusiast I relish the art of true verite filmmaking (uncorrupted by what we are force-fed as “reality TV”.)  Critics have been bemoaning the disparity in the marketplace for documentaries since the days of Siskel and Ebert, and there is no doubt that great documentaries can provide more dollar-for-dollar entertainment value than most big-budge Hollywood entries. I was more solidly entertained as filmgoer watching these families than in anything I saw in the last three Jennifer Aniston movies.  (Side note: Why do I keep going to her movies??)

I wished I would have gotten more of these moments, and that the filmmaker had let the families themselves tell the story of their struggle with the educational system. Rather, we get long interviews and rigorous explanations from deeply rhetorical interview subjects, clouded in dark black backdrops, trying to explain why the system is broken. I got lost in too many facts, statistics, and experts explaining why this or that doesn’t work.  Frankly, I don’t need one “expert” to explain to me why the educational system isn’t working once I’ve heard it come from the lips of a mother desperate for change.

As a filmmaker, Sackler could be a case study as to why a director should never edit their own material.  She would have benefitted from a more focused direction, and a less heavy-handed attack of the facts. And while I can’t help but admire her zealous commitment to her stance, I was shocked about the omission of certain vital elements (No mention of New York’s legendary “rubber rooms” for teachers pending disciplinary action?  Not one single mention of “vouchers”??).

But all of that amounts to little more than aesthetic nitpicking.  Could this have been a better “film” with some different editing choices? Sure, but who’s counting Oscars on your mantle when you have a nation of where 58% of African American fourth graders are functionally illiterate, where companies get contracts to build future prisons by “betting” how many convicts there will be based on elementary school failure rates, and where 50% of students from low-income families will not graduate high school when they turn 18.  Maybe Sackler’s attempts as a filmmaker may fall short in some areas, but ultimately, she is right about one thing. What’s most important in this entire dialogue is the future of these children. The Lottery (along with the upcoming Waiting for Superman) is going to be an essential part of push towards trying to change a system that all sides agree is just not working.

That is why I would not only recommend, but strongly encourage everyone to make room in your movie viewing schedule to see The Lottery. Parents, teachers, union advocates, legislators, voters…all of us. Because even if you don’t like charter schools or Barack Obama or wearing pants, it’s important to be informed about how we are educating the children of this country.  In a world that gives us an Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel, and an upcoming movie based on the board game “Battleship!”(yes, this is actually going to happen)  there has to be at least 90 minutes for that.