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The Boys of Baraka


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Oh Troy and Writergirl, you must see this for yourselves. I can almost guarantee you that it will be extremely hard to sit through it, but just try so that you can come back and tell me about how so many pieces of the "documentary" just didn't fit together.

Troy, let me tell you. That is how I even found out about the brother (Kam Williams), through trying to find something about this film written by someone, anyone on this earth who just did not believe da hype. I seemed to be the only one who thought that the documentary was false/falsified. Even the person who showed the film seemed highly offended by my questioning the film's authenticity said that she had a high sense of professional integrity and would not have shown it had it not been real. Well... The reality is that professional integrity and critical thinking skills are not synonymous. There's that same information abundance-good sense deficit we were just talking about. lol

I'll just give a few things that really stood out to me about the film (though there are MANY). The very first thing that stood out to me is that the little boy, Richard Keyser has what sounds like a British-influenced accent...However, in the film, neither of his "parents" had anything even remotely close to that accent. Now I can see a parent having that accent yet not the child, but when the child has it yet not the parent, hmm... What stood out more than anything, however, was that here are young black boys who are already alienated enough in America. There is a severe shortage of positive black (especially male) guidance in their environment... They are taken wayyyy to Kenya to, in the MIDST of the abundance of Kenya's blackness, be saved by a white headmaster, a white principal, white teachers, white counselors and such. Except for in passing, you don't really see the kids interacting with Kenyans and the most black faces that you see at one time is either for church on Sunday or during a dance.

You know, I looked into the makers of the "documentary" and found that they are also the makers of the "documentary" 'Jesus Camp'. Oh my goodness. By the time I finished watching it, I figured that between The Boys of Baraka and Jesus Camp, if I kept looking, I would probably see that their first documentary was "The Blair Witch Project". Credibility shot...AND buried.

At any rate, we live in an age in which the flashing of some statistics across the screen is the viewer's cue to suspend all objectivity. That, coupled with prestigious awards, public opinion , and "updates", just shuts down any type of questioning. As an afterthought, there are 'updates' for the kids of "Jesus Camp" as well. *Somebody send me to La La Land... I hear they' got better sense over there!) *

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Waterstar my time is so limited that I rather spend doing something else that watch a documenatry of questionable validity. While professional integrity and critical thinking skills are not synonymous -- they are both sorely lacking in our media.

I just Googled the film and found nothing to suggest that it was questionable. Wikipedia (our information Bible) #3 in my search result indicated nothing. I posted a link to my AALBC.com review.

How did you find Kam's review?

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haha@ Wikipedia- information Bible. Oh trust me. I know what you mean re: your search, because I googled in search of the same and that is precisely how I came up with Kam and Kam only. I was so happy to see it, though. I would so love for you to see it even if it's something that you see a year from now. This has potential to be a real teaching moment, a sign if you will indicating that we need to actually take the time to think for ourselves in spite of media/popular opinion...

In addition, I saw how Kam was basically blasted for expressing his objectivity. Professional reputations were used to minimize the importance of his analysis. No, that is an understatement; professional reputations were used to make it seem as though the film's very real exploitative tendencies and false notes were all in Kam's mind. They were used much in the same way that statistics in the film were used to distract and authenticate something that is, no matter what professional reputations are behind it, less than authentic. Others need to see it so that they can see for themselves what Kam was talking about and help others learn to recognize and understand media's/society's trickery.

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