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VIDEO INFORMATION |
VHS:
Not Available
DVD:
In Stock
Not available in VHS format.
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VHS:
N/A
DVD:
143 min. total
Colleges and Universities
$250.00
High Schools and Non-Profits
$150.00
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Reviews and Comments
"This series profiles three racially diverse, seriously troubled young men. Al-Tran and Cisco's fathers have abandoned them, and the needs of their dysfunctional mothers are often conflicting. Spencer's family is more traditional, but he suffers from seizures and is hostile and an outcast at school. This cinematically brutal and honest series takes a close-up look at the boys' problems through dialogue, body language, and interactions with family members, authorities, and others. Al-Tran has big dreams, but his resentment over his mother's efforts to keep him in a rigorous Catholic school sinks him into a serious depression. Cisco dropped out of school, and his mother does not support those who are trying to get him back on track. Spencer's family is desperate to find treatment for his problems. Their pain is visible, as are Spencer's desperation and fear. Although no easy answers are provided, the programs include thoughtful questions for classroom or other group discussion."
Edie Ching | Booklist | September 2005
Frederick Marx, one of the writers and producers of the 1994 film classic "Hoop Dreams", has created a series called "Boys to Men?" in which he takes a look at three very different fifteen and sixteen-year old boys... All three films leave many unanswered questions about how boys grow to be men. What is the role of mentors and father figures? What is the role of the school? How does society move boys from dependent boyhood into independent manhood?"
Sarah Flowers | VOYA | August 2005
"Frederick Marx, a co-writer and editor of 1994's much-honored Hoop Dreams, directed this short documentary (one of three in the Boys to Men? series) about a 15-year-old, fatherless boy named Al-Tran, who leads a rudderless existence under the watchful eye of his single mother. Despite the latter's best efforts, support and guidance from his school - an all-boys prep academy - and Al-Tran's own talents as an actor and poet, the thoughtful young man cannot overcome chronic depression and low self-esteem, which he attributes to growing up without a dad. Marx's fly-on-the-wall camera captures the sad decline of Al-Tran's hopes and spirit as he drops out of school and attempts to find a path in life, while interviews with him, his mom, teachers, and others offer insights into the potential problems of being raised without same-sex mentors. A compassionate and cautionary film... Recommended."
Video Librarian | May-June 2005
"Frederick Marx: a major talent in American filmmaking. All his work is imbued with power, intelligence, social concern, and utter dedication."
Gerry Richman | Program Director, KTCA-TV (PBS)
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Boys to Men?
NOW AVAILABLE!
In this section:
Summary
Logistical Information
Biographical Summary
Reviews and Comments
Articles
Summary:
In this moving follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Hoop Dreams, award-winning filmmaker Frederick Marx continues his exploration of the lives of ordinary young men and the extraordinary challenges they face. Boys to Men? - the second in a proposed trilogy about masculinity in America - trains its focus on the pressures and expectations faced by a diverse group of young urban males. The DVD consists of four films. Are You Listening? features several teenage boys from different ethnic, racial, and class backgrounds offering fascinating insights into their own experiences and the meaning of manhood in Amerian. Three additional pieces - Spencer, Cisco and Al-Tran - give insight into the lives of three 15-year-old boys as they navigate the daily challenges of school, family, and American society.
Logistical Information:
Directed, Produced, and Edited by Frederick Marx
A Warrior Educational Films Production (2004)
Are You Listening? - 52 minutes
Al-Tran - 31 minutes
Cisco - 30 minutes
Spencer - 30 minutes
Biographical Summary:
Frederick Marx is an internationally acclaimed, Oscar and Emmy nominated producer/director with 25 years in the film business. He was named a Chicago Tribune Artist of the Year for 1994, a 1995 Guggenheim Fellow, and a recipient of a Robert F. Kennedy Special Achievement Award. His film Hoop Dreams played in hundreds of theatres nationwide after winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was the first documentary ever chosen to close the New York Film Festival. It was on over 100 "Ten Best" lists nationwide and was named Best Film of the Year by critics Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Gene Shalit, and Ken Turran and by the Chicago Film Critics Association. Ebert also named it Best Film of the Decade. It is one of the highest grossing non-musical documentaries in United States history. It has won numerous prestigious awards, including an Academy Nomination (Best Editing), Producer's Guild, Editor's Guild (ACE), Peabody Awards, the Prix Italia (Europe's top documentary prize) and The National Society of Film Critics Award. The New York, Boston, LA, and San Francisco Film Critics all chose it as Best Documentary, 1994. Utne Reader named it one of 150 of humanity's "essential works,” and the Library of Congress recently added it to its prestigious National Film Registry.
Having worked for a time as an English and creative writing teacher, Marx began his movie career as a film critic, and has worked both as a film distributor and exhibitor. He has also traveled extensively. With a B.A. in Political Science and an MFA in filmmaking, Marx has coupled his formal education with a natural gift for languages, speaking German and some Mandarin-Chinese. His interest in languages and foreign cultures is reflected in PBS' international human rights program OUT OF THE SILENCE (1991), the widely acclaimed personal essay DREAMS FROM CHINA (1989), and Learning Channel's SAVING THE SPHINX (1997). He consulted on Iranian-Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi's feature TURTLES CAN FLY (2004) and was a teacher of renowned Thai feature filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Having dedicated his life to the making and promotion of independent films, Marx, a true maverick in the increasingly commercialized world of "independent cinema," continues to provide a voice of artistic and social integrity. He repeatedly returns to work with disadvantaged and misunderstood communities: people of color, abused children, the working poor, welfare recipients, prisoners, the elderly, and "at risk" youth. He brings a passion for appreciating multiculturalism and an urgent empathy for the sufferings of the disadvantaged to every subject he tackles. As his mission statement indicates ("Bearing witness, creating change"), his is a voice strong and clear, and profoundly human.
Articles:
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
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