TIFF: Trust & Waiting for "Superman"

Saturday morning kicked off with Trust, the second film from director David Schwimmer and a sharp contrast to his previous TIFF entry 'Run Fatboy Run'.

Clive Owen and Catherine Keener star as parents of a 14 year old girl (Liana Liberato) who discovers to disasterous results that the 16 year old boy she's been talking to online and over the phone for the past several months is really a pedophile who targets young girls online. I'd give the film overall a solid B- and the performance of Liberato an A+ who just ripped my heart out at times.

Schwimmer showed up to the morning screening (always appreciated) to introduce the film and was charming and well spoken. He said his desire to make the movie came out of his involvement with a rape victims group and provided us with some very scary stats on the prevalence of sexual assault.

Next on the docket was Waiting for 'Superman', which, as part of the Mavericks series was also going to include a panel discussion on the education system with director Davis Guggenheim, producer Lesley Chilcott, educator Geoffrey Canada and Bill Gates.

The movie is well done and well paced and follows the fate of several families who have entered their children in lotteries for entrance to one of few public schools in their respective towns with reputations and programs intended to get their students into college. Interspersed with their stories are facts and information about the public school system including historical context, international education ratings and stories of teachers and administrators who are trying to change the system and improve the lives of the children in their charge. The movie wraps up with learning the fate of each of the profiled children (who's odds of getting in to their schools ranged from 1 in 5 to 1 in 35) and it was heartbreaking to understand that their futures were largely tied to such a random fate. To the further delight of the crowd, Guggenheim brought out the families and children who had been the focus of the film to a standing ovation. Nothing pulls the heartstrings more than seeing adorable precocious kids who were clearly overwhelmed to be standing on that stage .

The panel discussion was interesting and all of the members are obviously well informed. The most compelling speaker to me was Geoffrey Canada who leads the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York. I will definitely be doing some more reading about him and his program. I found myself grateful to be a Canadian (it was a bit gratifying to see where we ranked on several areas of education in the film) though the panel was quick to say that it was important to be proactive on ensuring that we didn't fall into the same declines they've seen south of the border.

My main takeaway from the movie and discussion was that it was going to be necessary to change the administration of schools, especially dealing with the powers of the teachers unions, in order for real improvement to exist. There are more and more of these public charter schools and organizations being created in neighbourhoods all over the country but they are such a small portion of the total that it seems a bit overwhelming. What do you do if your child has only a 1 in 35 chance of getting into a school that will give them a quality education? Guggenheim talked about this as his main motivation in making the film as he passed public schools on the way to dropping off his children at the private school his family was lucky enough to be able to afford. So far my documentaries have been two for two at TIFF!