The low-budget comedy "Chalk" provides a welcome antidote to all those inspirational, cookie-cutter crowd-pleasers like "Freedom Writers" and "Dangerous Minds" that Hollywood routinely proffers in answer to our troubled schools.
Although this is a scripted, fictional film, co-writers Mike Akel (who is also the director) and Chris Mass (who also plays one of the teachers) have given "Chalk" the look and feel of a slice-of-life documentary. Director Akel has trained his cameras on a handful of young teachers and one first-year administrator as they go about the business of molding young minds at a fictional school called Harrison High (though the location remains unidentified, the movie itself was filmed in Austin, Texas). Yet, these are not your typical movie "super teachers" who, through sheer force of personality and a series of well-crafted lessons, are able to convert their initially hardened students into lifelong lovers of learning. Rather, the teachers here are well-meaning but imperfect mortals who wage a daily battle with students who won't learn, copiers that won't copy, and colleagues who often don't see eye-to-eye even on the most rudimentary aspects of teaching and learning, let alone on how best to run a school. Frankly, it's a good day for these teachers if the students aren't fighting in the lunch area, hiding the chalk as a lame practical joke, or arguing about why they aren't allowed to use a cell phone in class. And there are times in which the teachers themselves come across as more insecure, petty and immature than even their own students. Yet, there are also those special moments when the teachers and pupils manage to connect on a meaningful level - those little flashes of hope that the whole frustrating ordeal might just possibly amount to something worthy in the end.
Although this is a scripted, fictional film, co-writers Mike Akel (who is also the director) and Chris Mass (who also plays one of the teachers) have given "Chalk" the look and feel of a slice-of-life documentary. Director Akel has trained his cameras on a handful of young teachers and one first-year administrator as they go about the business of molding young minds at a fictional school called Harrison High (though the location remains unidentified, the movie itself was filmed in Austin, Texas). Yet, these are not your typical movie "super teachers" who, through sheer force of personality and a series of well-crafted lessons, are able to convert their initially hardened students into lifelong lovers of learning. Rather, the teachers here are well-meaning but imperfect mortals who wage a daily battle with students who won't learn, copiers that won't copy, and colleagues who often don't see eye-to-eye even on the most rudimentary aspects of teaching and learning, let alone on how best to run a school. Frankly, it's a good day for these teachers if the students aren't fighting in the lunch area, hiding the chalk as a lame practical joke, or arguing about why they aren't allowed to use a cell phone in class. And there are times in which the teachers themselves come across as more insecure, petty and immature than even their own students. Yet, there are also those special moments when the teachers and pupils manage to connect on a meaningful level - those little flashes of hope that the whole frustrating ordeal might just possibly amount to something worthy in the end.
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