News

September 27, 2010 - [ Variety ]

Participant Media CEO Jim Berk has a strong personal connection to "Waiting for Superman," the Davis Guggenheim docu on the crisis in public education.

Berk began his career as a high school music teacher, and in short order he became the youngest principal in the history of the Los Angeles Unified School District when he was tapped to lead the Alexander Hamilton High Schools complex in 1990. He established Hamilton's renowned music academy program, now one of the largest performing arts magnet schools in the country.
 
As Paramount opened "Superman," produced by Participant and Walden Media, on Friday in New York and L.A., Berk was at CAA's headquarters hosting a benefit screening of the doc to raise money for the L.A. branch of the nonprofit org Communities in Schools. The org provides mentors, tutors and other services to more than 2.3 million students around the country in a bid to cut the dropout rate in low-income schools. (CAA provides office space and other support for CIS Los Angeles West.)

September 23, 2010 - [ Los Angeles Times ]

In "Waiting for 'Superman,' " a withering examination of the country's public school system, documentarian Davis Guggenheim, an Oscar winner for his incisive Al Gore-global warming treatise, "An Inconvenient Truth," proves as potent a storyteller and showman as activist filmmaker with a serious issue on his mind.
 
Much of the film is told compellingly and heartbreakingly through the wide-eyed innocence of five children. There is Anthony, a Washington, D.C., fifth-grader; Daisy, same grade, 3,000 miles away in East Los Angeles; Francisco, a Bronx first-grader; Bianca, a Harlem kindergartener; and Emily, a Silicon Valley eighth-grader. No children profiled come from the great swatch of the American Heartland, which nags around the edges of this riveting portrait, though the statistics offered up would suggest the problems are as pervasive as they are entrenched. The film is already kicking up dust in large part because of what is arguably a broadside attack on teachers unions, and indeed they do not fare well on the Guggenheim scale.

September 23, 2010 - [ The New York Times ]

This movie has been designated a Critic's Pick by the film reviewers of The New York Times.
 
 “One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me ‘Superman’ did not exist,” the educational reformer Geoffrey Canada recalls in the opening moments of “Waiting for ‘Superman,’ ” a powerful and alarming documentary about America’s failing public school system. “She thought I was crying because it’s like Santa Claus is not real. I was crying because no one was coming with enough power to save us.”
 
If Mr. Canada, who was born in the South Bronx and grew up to be one of the country’s most charismatic and inspiring educators, is not Superman, he must be a close relative. Those who have read Paul Tough’s book, “Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America,” will know that the 97-block Harlem Children’s Zone, which he founded and runs, is no miracle. The zone is astoundingly successful at getting children through high school and into college. But that success, largely dependent on private money, is a costly product of laborious trial and error.

September 22, 2010 - [ Entertainment Weekly ]

In the powerful, passionate, and potentially revolution-inducing documentary Waiting for 'Superman' filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) argues that every American child deserves a good public-school education; that, in fact, providing every child with the opportunity for a good public-school education is vital to our nation's welfare; and that if the current educational system is flawed, it's up to us — you, me, parents, teachers, taxpayers, registered voters — to fix it, right now. The first two statements aren't likely to ruffle feathers. (Show of hands: Who's against literacy?) But the heartbreaking difficulty of achieving the third goal — along with Guggenheim's expert storytelling skills in the service of advocacy — is what buoys us through Waiting for 'Superman' on waves of despair, hope, outrage, and finally, constructive, motivating anger.

September 21, 2010 - [ Philadelphia Daily News ]

ARE WE on the cusp of a major awakening that could push public schools to the reform they so badly need? Is there a film that could crystallize all the angst over public schools and smash through the status quo?

The answers are "yes" and "maybe." John Heilemann, writing in New York magazine, says, "A confluence of factors - a grassroots outcry for better schools, a cadre of determined reformers, a newly demanding and parlous economy, and a president willing to challenge his party's hoariest shibboleths and most potent allies has created what Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calls 'a perfect storm.' "

Heilemann believes, as do I, that the film "Waiting for Superman" may be the catalyst that moves the needle toward reform.

September 21, 2010 - [ The Wall Street Journal ]

Al Gore's movie director takes on the public schools

In 111 piercing minutes of film, Davis Guggenheim offers something that reams of foundation reports, endless pieces of bipartisan legislation and oceans of newspaper ink never have: a stunning liberal exposé of a system that consigns American children who most need a decent education to our most destructive public schools.

Nor does he exempt himself from this corrupt bargain. The man who produced both the Barack Obama short for the 2008 Democratic Convention and Al Gore's Academy Award-winning documentary about global warming offers an inconvenient truth of his own. Each morning, Mr. Guggenheim shows, he drives by three public schools until he gets to the nice private school where he deposits his own children. In so doing, he accuses himself of "betraying the ideals I thought I lived by."

September 20, 2010 - [ Media Max Online ]

Davis Guggenheim, Bill Gates and Michelle Rhee talk about “Waiting for Superman” with Oprah.

September 16, 2010 - [ Washington Post ]

Founder and executive director of the Center for Inspired Teaching, a D.C.-based nonprofit organization that works with teachers, principals, and entire school faculties to foster the best teaching practices.
 
I attended last night's preview of "Waiting for Superman," Davis Guggenheim’s stirring film that tells the stories of five children with big dreams and limited educational opportunities. It’s a powerful film that accomplishes its goal: shining a light on the problems in education and making them impossible to ignore.

September 16, 2010 - [ National PTA News ]

Last night (September 15th) I had the opportunity to join several hundred government, education and community leaders in the DC area at the Red Carpet Premiere of “Waiting for Superman”, a documentary on the state of education in the United States. I didn’t sleep well afterwards. The message of this film kept running through my mind.
 
The film talks about several of the challenges that face public education, what should take place to correct these challenges and highlights some successful practices in communities related to educational environments, like charter schools. More importantly, this film shows viewers the challenging stories of five students (and their families) who want to attend a high quality school. It is a blunt, to the point film that calls it like it is; which I like!
 
Now you are probably asking, “What kept me awake last night?” Easy, the stories of these students and more specifically why their families are placed in such a position that they are pinning their educational hopes on a lottery, not for money but for one seat in a school that will provide a quality education.

September 15, 2010 - [ MSNBC ]

September 13, 2010 - [ Bloomberg ]

Speaking at a press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie was shown over the weekend, Gates said U.S. schools aren’t producing enough skilled workers for high-tech companies like Microsoft.
 
“It’s harder to find these people in the U.S. than you would expect,” said Gates, who also appears in the film. “If you look at the computer science department in the top (colleges), the majority of students are not U.S. born. That says something about our education system.”

September 14, 2010 - [ CBS News ]

This week CBS Evening News kicks off a series of stories about how to improve our schools to prepare the next generation for the jobs of the future. Anchor and Managing Editor, Katie Couric offers her first-hand take on why the series matters in this blog post.
 
I've watched "Waiting for Superman" a new documentary by David Guggenheim twice. It is incredibly compelling and depressing.Education in this country is failing too many students.  The documentary film traces the decline of public education in an understandable, relatable way. Who knew educators still tracked kids and put them on a path to jobs that existed in a post World War II economy? And while our country ranks 5th in spending per student, we also rank 21st in science literacy in a comparison of 30 developed countries. Yet we rank number one in self-confidence.

September 13, 2010 - [ Hollywood Reporter ]

Documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim is proud of his soon-to-be-released film, "Waiting For Superman." However, he's ashamed to show it in Canada. "As an American, to bring to Canada the state of our schools, I feel ashamed," said the Oscar-winning director (the man in the middle of the photo to the right).
 


Guggenheim and his producing partner, Lesley Chilcott, were feted at Yorkville's Ciao Wine Bar. The cocktail reception was hosted by Participant Media founder Jeff Skoll and executives Jim Berk and Ricky Strauss. Also on hand was Bill Gates, who's been a strong supporter of the film.

September 7, 2010 - [ The Huffington Post ]

At my house the other night, the suspense was more intense than a thriller. My wife, daughter and I were huddled over a computer in the kitchen. I had control of the mouse, but clearly I wasn't going fast enough scrolling down the list, because my wife snatched it from my hand. Then my daughter shrieked, "Mom!, it's right there! See!!!" There it was, the list of fourth graders and which teacher was assigned to each student -- her little nine year old finger, hunting for her name. She saw it first and starting squealing, then my wife jumping up and down (I've always been the slow reader) But yes, yes!!!! It was there. We got the teacher we wanted. I joined in the celebration high five-ing my daughter, but more importantly my wife because we knew the single most important factor in determining her success this year would be the teacher she sees at the front of the classroom each day.

September 6, 2010 - [ New York Magazine ]

A debate has been raging over why our education system is failing. A new documentary by the director of An Inconvenient Truth throws fuel on the fire.



The Harlem-based educator and activist Geoffrey Canada first met the filmmaker Davis Guggenheim in 2008, when Canada was in Los Angeles raising money for the Children’s Defense Fund, which he chairs. Guggenheim told Canada that he was making a documentary about the crisis in America’s schools and implored him to be in it. Canada had heard this pitch before, more times than he could count, from a stream of camera-toting do-gooders whose movies were destined to be seen by audiences smaller than the crowd on a rainy night at a Brooklyn Cyclones game. Canada replied to Guggenheim as he had to all the others: with a smile, a nod, and a distracted “Call my office,” which translated to “Buzz off.”


August 25, 2010 - [ The New York Times ]

You have to look at America from the bottom up, not from the top (Washington) down. And what you’ll see from down there is that there is a movement stirring in this country around education. From the explosion of new charter schools to the new teachers’ union contract in D.C., which will richly reward public school teachers who get their students to improve faster and weed out those who don’t, Americans are finally taking their education crisis seriously. If you don’t want to stand on your head, then just go to a theater near you after Sept. 24 and watch the new documentary “Waiting for Superman.” You’ll see just what I’m talking about. 
 


Directed by Davis Guggenheim, who also directed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Waiting for Superman” takes its name from an opening interview with the remarkable Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone. HCZ has used a comprehensive strategy, including a prenatal Baby College, social service programs and longer days at its charter schools to forge a new highway to the future for one of New York’s bleakest neighborhoods.

August 13, 2010 - [ Politico ]

Typically, the CIA is all about black ops, classified information and secrecy. 
 


But here's something POLITICO has uncovered: Late last month, the CIA and the National Counterterrorism Center hosted a joint screening of the documentary Countdown to Zero, a Participant Media flick about the escalating nuclear arms crisis. 
 


The audience was standing-room only and incuded more than 500 people, including high-level agency reps and analysts who follow nuclear terrorism and counterproliferation issues from the CIA and NCTC. 
 


After the screening, Jeff Skoll, the founder of Participant Media and the film's producer, held a Q-and-A session. 
 


The film has made the Beltway rounds. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) held a screening of the flick and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also screened the film while traveling back from Mexico.

August 9, 2010 - [ The Huffington Post ]

I recently had the opportunity to view the documentary "Waiting for Superman" with hundreds of inspired, interested, and driven adolescents from the Youth Speaks Organization. As I watched this comprehensive, unsettling, and yet poignant look at the United States's educational system, I heard the cheering and clapping of concurrence from the audience. It left me with a pit in my stomach because this cross section of America's youth could relate to almost every sad and desperate scene on film. As a product of two high school teachers, education was always valued and of utmost importance in my home, and therefore, I took for granted getting an education. Unlike me, the kids who I sat among understood that in most areas in this country, education is NOT a right, but a privilege. They know that a teen drops out of high school every 26 seconds. They have also experienced among their families and friends that these drop outs are 8% more likely to end up in jail and will earn 40% on the dollar of a college graduate. This documentary was part of their story too.



The director, Davis Guggenheim, also known for his piece "An Inconvenient Truth," shares a gripping and thought-provoking story in this new film about the plight of this country's educational system. The dismal state of education, the bleak statistics, and the cumbersome politics surrounding any sort of solution is punctuated by a human element. The cost of apathy and denial are given faces and families in this film. We follow the stories of five inspiring, hopeful, and innocent children and their doting, hard working, and tireless parents who are trying to ascertain the basic American right of education. These five youths are merely examples of the millions of children who lack the means to shatter the molds that tie them to the "academic sinkholes" and "drop out factories" that they call their schools. Guggenheim illustrates this blatant injustice, and without moralizing or offering any concrete solutions, he evokes an unremitting desire to rectify the situation.

August 2, 2010 - [ Newsweek ]

After spending years trying to thwart the nuclear black market, a former CIA spy says the only way to prevent terrorists from getting the bomb is to eliminate all of the world’s nukes.
 
 

The smoke was still drifting off the World Trade Center when the CIA discovered that Osama bin Laden had secretly met just a few days before the attack with a top Pakistani nuclear scientist, seeking help in building a nuclear bomb.

Immediately, nuclear terrorism jumped to the top of the list of urgent threats to the civilized world. My clandestine work as a CIA operations officer became laser-focused on counterproliferation as we mobilized to prevent a nuclear 9/11. We knew that the horror of a nuclear bomb detonated in a major city would dwarf any catastrophe previously suffered by our country—the death toll would be in the hundreds of thousands and the economic and social devastation sudden and catastrophic.
 


Nine years later, who is winning this contest of wills between the civilized world and terrorist groups trying to buy, build, or steal a nuclear bomb? I would like to believe the bad guys are losing, but, in fact, time favors them as long as nuclear-bomb-grade materials and weapons exist in the world. A valiant team effort by the CIA and our many partners around the globe has prevented an attack thus far. But my experience as part of that effort tells me that the only way to end this danger is to lock down all nuclear materials and eliminate nuclear weapons in all countries.

August 2, 2010 - [ Fast Company ]

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a joint venture between Participant Media and one of the country's biggest office supply retailers! 
 


Cause marketing has a history that is near and dear to my heart, from YouthAIDS’ partnership with footwear company Aldo and major celebrities like rapper Ludacris and pop singer Avril Lavigne to MTV’s partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation to promote young adult health in marginalized communities. A consistent player in this scene is Participant Media, a production company started by Jeff Skoll that produces socially relevant films with an agenda to create sustained social change. 
 


Participant’s latest partnership reveals the far-reaching scope of cause marketing and CSR campaigns, as none other than OfficeMax has announced that it will donate school supplies to over 1,000 teachers when 40,000 people pledge to watch Participant's latest film, Waiting for "Superman," about the distraught public school system in the United States. 
 


I’m excited about Participant and OfficeMax’s partnership--and it makes sense (school supplies, yada, yada)--but office supplies aren’t exactly sexy. I think ice cream would be more sexy! But teachers also need a little something spicy to shake up their work lives, don’t they? Like regular classroom visits from celebrities to offer acting and dancing coaching? Come on guys, use those Hollywood connections for better arts education! 
 


So when we forge rather large partnerships like this, let’s go beyond what just makes sense to something, I don’t know, a little different? Thanks, guys. Looking forward to my ice cream coupon next time.