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American Promise
Directed by
Joe Brewster
,
Michèle Stephenson
TV-PG
2013
2h 15m
Documentary
7.1
72%
74%
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This intimate documentary follows the 12-year journey of two African-American families pursuing the promise of opportunity through the education of their sons.
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Where to Watch American Promise
Fandango at Home Free
Free
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Free
Hoopla
Free
+8 more
Cast of American Promise
Idris Brewster
Self
Oluwaseun Summers
Self
Michèle Stephenson
Self / Director / Producer
Joe Brewster
Self / Director / Producer
Anthony Summers
Self
Stacey O. Summers
Self
American Promise Ratings & Reviews
Newsday
John Anderson
A misbegotten project, as well as a missed opportunity.
Boston Globe
Peter Keough
Not only provides illuminating insights into racial and cultural issues, but explores family dynamics common to all.
East Bay Express
Kelly Vance
Says a lot about race, color, class, competition, and plain human nature in success-driven contemporary urban America.
San Francisco Chronicle
Walter V. Addiego
By the end you can't help but wonder whether it was a good idea to keep the youngsters under camera scrutiny for more than 12 years.
Film Comment Magazine
Jennifer Dworkin
Because Brewster and Stephenson have had the great courage to expose their own mistakes and excesses along the way, the film is revelatory as an embedded report from the front lines of parenting.
Washington Post
Stephanie Merry
The fact that the pair pulls off the nearly 21 / 2-hour run time without making the audience tire of the subjects is a feat itself.
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
I'm glad I saw this movie because it allowed me to spend time with two engaging boys whose young lives are worth chronicling. But those lives can't bear the symbolic weight the filmmakers place on them. Nor should they have to.
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
A remarkable documentary, though only partially for the reason its creators intended.
NYC Movie Guru
Avi Offer
Repetitive, overlong and, worst of all, not illuminating enough.
Film-Forward.com
Nora Lee Mandel
Raising and educating middle-class African-American boys is seen first-hand, cinema verit style, over 9 years in fitful, occasionally insightful, and intimately revealing.
RogerEbert.com
Godfrey Cheshire
While they didn't set out to make a film about what newspaper columnists refer to as the "black male achievement gap," Brewster and Stephenson have done just that, and it's hard to imagine a more penetrating and powerful one.
New York Post
Farran Smith Nehme
It's a baggy movie, with some things (such as whether Idris taking Ritalin in high school improved his performance) unexplained, and it may appeal most to those raising kids themselves.
New York Times
Manohla Dargis
By the time Idris and Seun are preadolescents, they're struggling, and so are the filmmakers.
AV Club
Ben Kenigsberg
Ultimately, American Promise seems split between a personal perspective and a broader one. It's a bold experiment that's also a textbook case of filmmakers being too close to their material.
Variety
Geoff Berkshire
An intimate look at what it's like to be young, black and male in a largely white private school.
The Hollywood Reporter
Duane Byrge
A moving document of what it means to be a minority in an exclusive, high-performing school.
The Dissolve
Mike D'Angelo
While American Promise often feels frustratingly unfocused and random,...it compensates to some degree with equally random details about growing up in urban America.
The Playlist
Kevin Jagernauth
...what this documentary perhaps concludes is that the American Promise lies not in the endless opportunities the country offers, but in the pact parents make with their children, to support them in whatever opportunity they happen to seize.
Compuserve
Harvey S. Karten
A fourteen-year, untiring project that captures the joys and disappointments of two African-American youngsters who try to fit into the culture of a mostly white prep school.
Slant Magazine
Ela Bittencourt
The documentary's lack of a cohesive thesis may frustrate at times, but its power lies in its exposition of the mundane.
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