“Notes from the Field” is a play that was made into a film by HBO that explores the problem of poverty and education in the poorest schools in the country. If you aware of the social justice program, “The Anna Deavere Smith Pipeline Project” then you have a very good idea of what to expect from the film. If you aren’t, this film will give you the background and reality to one of the country’s biggest but least covered problems by the media.
The film is a continuation of the program whose goal is to raise awareness about the problem of the cyclical lives where young students who are failed by the educational system end up on the road to prison, the first stage of the cycle. Then they serve their time and are released into a world with no education and little opportunity for integration into society. A primary focus of the film is on the children who are unknowingly trapped in the cycle — until it is too late.
Now the director of the film has substantial experience working with Martin Scorsese, so she is no stranger to excellence in film production. Kristi Zea was a production designer for Scorsese for many years. According to the lead actor, one of the problems with doing a theatrical play is that a theater experience “doesn’t allow for close-ups.” (This is actually not true, but using them consistently in a play is definitely more challenging than in a movie.)
If you are thinking that the movie focuses on African American children, you are correct but it also includes the same problems Native American children face, coming from homes where the alcoholism rate tends to be very high. Yet the road for those children is often the same, even if hidden behind the generally ignored life of an American Indian reservation. (On a disturbing historical note, it has been said that Hitler got his idea for his concentration camps from the American Indian reservations.)
The real importance of the movie is that it brings to light a consistent social justice problem that has been ignored by the media for many years. The tendency is for news media to show success stories of how people overcame their obstacles and achieved their dreams. There is nothing inherently wrong with highlighting the positive, but equal time need to be spent bringing to light the everyday problems of everyday people. It may not be the most comfortable film to watch, but if it makes you uncomfortable then the film has achieved its purpose.
“Notes from the Field” can be considered a documentary, which makes it easy for many people to ignore since history is not on everybody’s favorite subject list. Also, the fact that it is on HBO may reduce its credibility as a historical and very real problem. But all we have to do is look around at the cycles of under-education, failed school systems, and recidivism rates among poor people and we can see the truth of the underlying problems we as a country face to bring true equality on a wide scale to children who are simply the victims of poverty.
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