435 - High Schools (1983) - 9/10 - This is an excellent documentary about the state of high schools in the U.S. in 1983. I related to it quite a bit on two levels - first as a student since I started high school myself in 1984 and second as a teacher who spent 27 years in high schools. Many things were covered here, both from student and teacher perspectives. The film suggests that teacher education programs at the time were not very relevant to the actual needs of prospective teachers and this was my experience as well when I was in college. The need for teaching reading and writing across the curriculum is something that I saw being pushed 25 years later. This was filmed in seven high schools over a school year and sees many interactions and discusses a wide range of topics, many of which are still very relevant today. One thing that I think is unfortunate, though, is the great decline in programs such as automotive, shop classes, and culinary arts. These have taken a back seat in the push to have every student attend college and increase standardized tests scores under the myth that schools were failing and this does a disservice to a number of students who would benefit from those classes.
436 - Eight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen Caldicott (1981) - 7/10 - Helen Caldicott is an Australian pediatrician who gave up her medical practice and also her teaching job at Harvard to pursue her anti-nuclear beliefs. She has written a number of books, started organizations, and traveled around the world to speak against uranium mining, nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons, etc. She speaks to the danger of cancer, birth defects, and other other issues related to nuclear power and weapons. It wasn't bad, though it seemed a bit repetitive as it went on. Hopefully her advocacy helped lead to an increase in safety standards.
Six-Sided Triangle (1963) - 5/10 - A love triangle of two men and a woman is repeated (by the same actors) in six different cultures, usually with similar results. I didn't find most of it all that interesting.
Don't Mess with Bill (1980) - 6.5/10 - This short film features Bill Underwood, the man who created an unarmed martial art called Defendo that he traveled across several countries teaching to law enforcement officers. He was already 84 when they made this film and he was still at it. He had a few decent stories, but it was difficult to get a real understanding of his technique just from this brief documentary.
Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date (1985) - 7/10 - This film analyzes Keats and his famous poem "Ode to a Nightingale" by interviewing teachers, students, and others to read and attempt to interpret the poem. They also give a bit of context into Keats and his life along with what he was going through at the time he wrote the poem (the death of his younger brother). I'm not a fan of poetry, but the film is well made and somewhat interesting even to those of us who do not aspire to creative verse such as this.
