American Promise Documentary
The ACES pillar film project was an eye-opening experience for me. The assignment challenged my groups ability to find our pillars through a film and connect it to our lives and daily observing.The ACES pillars include: positive social change, advocacy, community, and service. Not only did we analyze the meaningful film, I personally was able to connect to it by hearing those same conversation I had with my mother when attending Columbus City Preparatory School for Girls. The members of my group and I chose to watch “American Promise”. The film follow two African-American males by the name of Idris and Seun as they learn how to function in a prestigious predominantly white elementary and middle school by the name of Dalton. The film cover their lives for about 12 1/2 years showing issues inside and outside of the classroom.Both boys struggle to adjust to the workload, and function of the school. I just was diagnosed with ADHD, while Seun was diagnosed with dyslexia. They both grew up learning karate and playing basketball, but as time went by their interest changed, and their paths diverged. The documentary demonstrated our pillars in ways that were very relatable to my life. The film demonstrated positive social change by increasing the diversity at Dalton school. The schools population of minorities increased to 25% during the creation of this film. Advocacy was demonstrated by the documentary in the parents actions and how they went about solving problems their sons had. Both sets of parents provided school materials outside of school, they provided a homework helper, and increased their commitment to the success of their child. Community was demonstrated within the Dalton School for this film. The school was so small that it made it easier for people who went there to get to know each other well. Service was demonstrated within the film in a nontraditional way. The teachers work very close with Seun, who had dyslexia. This was seen as a sense of service because the teacher did not have to and she did not receive any benefits for the time, energy, or dedication that was put into making sure he understood as well as the other students. This film project was very interesting and fun to complete.