The HBO Theater was seated to capacity, which required a separate room for another several dozen of our guests. The opening night film, Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, offered a tremendous opportunity for a serious discussion about the way in which legal system desegregated American schools, but, in doing so, perhaps did not alleviate and improve the deep divisions in opportunity and achievement that still divide the races.
Filmmakers Craig and Brent Renaud talked about their reasons for making the film, the way it presented a homecoming for them as Little Roc natives, a terrain they well understood. Little Rock Central today is considered one of the best high schools in America, with many students ultimately attending Ivy League colleges and performing well on Advanced Placement tests. The problem is that these students are overwhelmingly white, and many come from privileged backgrounds who attend Little Rock Central out of district, mainly to take advantage of the school’s excellence and Advanced Placement classes.
The majority of the students who live near the high school are African-American, and the film starkly shows how disparate their experience is, not just as remedial students, but also as teenagers living in poverty and fatherless homes, and dealing with fatherless homes. Despite the promise of integration, it is a school still very much segregated. The boundary that African-Americans can’t cross now in Little Rock Central is not access to the school, but a different but equally pernicious line that divides children by class, economic empowerment, and access to the Advance Placement classes, which ultimately once again comes down to a division between black and white.
Fordham professors Maria Marcus and Shelia Foster were invaluable as they provided both historical and legal context to the discussion, reminding the audience of what American schools looked like in the deep south in the 1950s before the Civil Rights era, and, as Professor Foster pointed out, the way in which the past fifty years has not brought about the necessary changes and improvements that everyone had hoped, but yet, despite one of the themes raised in the film, most people do not think that separate but equal is the answer.
I found the event insightful and enjoyable. It was recited many times during the evening, and it was true, that it is very seldom that a film can invoke thoughtful conversations as both ‘Little Rock Central’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (the two films I frequented) did. My only criticism is perhaps to keep conversation more on topics, or perhaps outline a specific line of conversations for a specific film: such as race as a culture construction for ‘Little Rock Central’; or social justice or conceptions of morality in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. However, these criticisms are inconsequential. Thank you for the event.
I’d like to post some comments about the movies I saw. Will you be opening a discussion about individual moves sometime soon?
This is first film festival that I have attended and I must say that I enjoyed it very much. The documentary Little Rock Central: 50 years later discussed and portrayed that the issue of race and class division still exist within our integrated society.The panel discussion also shed diferent perspectives on the issues regarding racism. I agree with Mr. Rosenbaum when he indicated that “most people don’t think that separate but equal is the answer.” I would recommend anyone to attend this film festival. The discussions and the films are very educational as well as entertaining.