Documentary

This documentary follows four different families as they await the date for a charter school lottery in Harlem. As the date approaches, we bear witness to the heated debates that go on between those that wish to implement more charter schools (a charter school being one similar to public schools but relies on stringent academic results and standards from its students and operates as an autonomous public school) into a “project” area, and members of the community who believe that their children would be excluded and object to the idea of closing public schools who have failed to produce positive results.

This film clearly has an agenda, and so comparisons to the likes of An Inconvenient Truth have been made. The key difference between this film and Al Gore's, aside from style and topic, is that The Lottery allows both sides to speak their minds and address their concerns. It is the difference between simply saying the other side is wrong versus allowing them to speak so that the folly in their arguments will present themselves naturally. Harlem Success Academy is the organization running the charter schools, and have proven their worth to both the neighbourhoods they exist in, and the nation as a whole. The debates they enter can be frustrating to watch as they are often vicious attempts to mudsling (politicians) or ignorant bravado (community members led by a hired protest group) versus reason (Harlem Success Academy) and endorsements (members of the Harlem community whose children have all been accepted into the schools despite parental history of prison, drugs, lack of money etc.). If they are not entered into unnecessary and hurtful debates, they are also bogged down by bureaucracy and challenges presented by the teacher's unions.