Starring
Geoffrey Canada

From Davis Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning director of An Inconvenient Truth, comes this deeply personal exploration of the current state of public education in the US and how it is affecting children. Fuelled by his conscience and electrified by the possibilities for change, Guggenheim sets off on a probing journey into the lives of five unforgettable kids whose dreams, hopes and untapped potential reveal all that it is at stake at this critical moment.

They include Daisy, an LA fifth-grader who, no matter what, never gives up on big plans for her future; Francisco, a Bronx first-grader whose mum will do anything to give him a shot at a better life; Anthony, a Washington DC fifth-grader in search of a different life from that of the dad he lost to drug addiction; Emily, an eighth-grader in Silicon Valley who fears being permanently stamped as unfit for college and Bianca, a Harlem kindergartner already aiming, with her single mother's valiant help, to make it against the odds.

In spite of their rousing determination and grit, the shocking reality is that most of film's touching and funny cast of kids will be barred from a chance at what was once taken for granted: a great American education.

Directed by
Davis Guggenheim