CHECK AVAILABILITY AND PRICING OF THIS MOVIE ON VIDEO OR DVD.
Just type in movie title and click go.

Also, check out 100 Hot Videos
and the 100 Hot DVDs

There hasn't been a student play at Dominguez High in Compton for twenty years. There is no budget for a play. There is no auditorium to have a play. But then two teachers and twenty-four students attempted to put on the most performed play in American Theater, Thorton Wilder's Our Town.

First-time filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy begins chronicling the making of this play a month and 13 days before opening night. The result of his work (and the work of the students and teachers) is OT: Our Town.

There is so much about the play that doesn't fit with this school setting. For a start, Our Town is a complex play that is far harder to do than it seems on the surface. To ask a group of students who have no experience to do such a play is truly a challenge.

Even more of a challenge is to make these students, all inner-city African-Americans and Latinos, identify with the story and characters, set in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, early in the Twentieth Century. How can a play set in such a different world have any meaning to the students who live in one of the most notorious ghettos of today?

OT takes us through these issues and more as we watch the struggle to bring this play to life in spite of so many forces working against it.

The film is made up of clips from the 1977 TV version of the play, scenes from the classroom, scenes of Compton, interviews with the students -- all interspersed. It keeps us moving through the play, through the process and through the lives of the teachers and students as it all tries to come together.

We discover many things along the way. We discover that those who have grown up in Compton are not all alike. We discover that great things can happen when people work together. We discover that divergent people can learn to care about each other. We discover that teachers can make a difference in the lives of students and that good things happen, even in disadvantaged schools.

We also discover that Our Town is a powerful play that is not limited to its setting, but teaches about life as it is lived in the real world of Compton as well is the invented Grover's Corners. Our Town reminds us that things go by so quickly that we need to pay attention and cherish life as it happens. That may be hard to do in Compton, when there are drive-by shootings and gangsters on the corners. But as we watch OT, we know we are watching an event that needs to be appreciated.

Now, the bad news. You probably won't see it at a theater near you. It has played in various film festivals, and has an extremely limited release. This is a shame, because this is an excellent documentary. Perhaps a distributor will pick it up and widen the release, but I'm sure it won't be by much. I hope that one of the cable channels or PBS will pick it up so that others can enjoy this film and share in the lessons and the triumph of making something happen.

OFFICIAL SITE
Publicity information and images © 2003 Film Movement. All Rights Reserved.
No other uses are permitted without the prior written consent of owner. Use of the material in violation of the foregoing may result in civil and/or criminal penalties. Credits and dates are subject to change. For more information, please visit their official site.

Hollywood Jesus News Letter
Receive the Hollywood Jesus Newsletter FREE.
Sign up here