Among the statistics displayed in the opening minutes of ‘Black Males/Black Dreams: Climbing to the Mountaintop,’ this one is most unsettling: more African-American men, 775,000, are in U.S. prisons than U.S. colleges, 680,000.

While it presents these hard facts, the documentary focuses on success stories rather than the failures to come out of the school system.

The film was co-produced by television, radio and film professor Larry Elin and professor emeritus of the School of Education Susan Hynds and made only with the equipment available in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. It will make its premiere in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium at7 p.m. Wednesday. It deals with problems that everyone knows exist, but few people truly want to acknowledge. The documentary’s message speaks at both a local and a national level.

Despite the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States, age-old racial barriers have yet to be broken. African-American males still struggle to get a complete education, the film explains. A majority of students drop out and end up in prison, which illustrates ‘the school-to-prison pipeline.’ The documentary is not about the people who become these statistics but rather those who beat them and those who are helping to reverse them altogether.

It features interviews from now grown-up former students of the Syracuse education system. The most prominent is Carlos Wallace, now an educator. His story of struggle and hard-earned success encapsulates what all teachers and students should aspire to attain.

While several movies and documentaries have explored this subject matter, ‘Black Males/Black Dreams’ stands out by tackling the issues at hand from all sides. Rather than presenting a one-sided indictment of the parents, the teachers or the education system, it explores how all of these factors can make or break a child. It shows that success for the African-American male not only depends on a combination of self-motivation and guidance from good role models, but also how students can motivate themselves. The documentary also taps into what exactly constitutes a positive role model.

Maybe one of the most interesting discoveries here is that women specifically make the best teachers for male African-American students. This conclusion stems from the many factors of black culture further explored in the movie. Wallace’s teacher, Mary McCrone, who had the biggest influence on his decision to become an educator, is interviewed prominently.

‘Black Males/Black Dreams’ offers no absolute solutions, yet it should still be considered valuable and uplifting. By focusing on the positives as opposed to the negatives, the documentary centers on hopeful futures.

iaphilli@syr.edu

Published on January 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm