A thorough documentary takes a journalistic look at an issue by investigating it from all possible angles, removing the emotional component from the discussion and using the gathered information to draw a logical conclusion. A popular and successful documentary heightens an emotional issue by emphasizing the plight of the downtrodden while demonizing the oppressors, all while making their point of view easily understandable to the masses. Waiting for Superman is a fantastic example of a documentary which attempts to be thorough while being successful and wildly engaging.
Of course, it helps that director and writer Davis Guggenheim has two other films under his belt (It Might Get Loud and An Inconvenient Truth) that join Waiting for Superman on the list of 100 highest-grossing documentaries of all time. Rather than solve global warming, this time around Guggenheim tries to tackle an equally frustrating issue: educational reform in America.
The title of Waiting for Superman comes by way of an anecdote from educational reformer Geoffrey Canada. He relates that the saddest day of his childhood growing up in Harlem was the day his mother told him Superman wasn’t real. He began to cry, not at the dispelling of the myth, but at the fact that no one was going to show up who was strong enough to put a stop to everything that was wrong with his neighborhood. Little did Canada know at the time, but he has since become “Superman” to the kids in his old neighborhood.
The film opens up with Anthony, an inner city kid living in Washington, D.C. who lost his father to drugs and has been raised by his grandmother. Anthony wants nothing more than to go to a good school and get a solid education. This simple scene sets up the reoccurring argument at the core of Waiting for “Superman”: our children can and want to learn, but the system fails many of them.
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