Urban Ed-old
An environmental screenplay about a realistic future by screenwriter Wade Wofford.
Below:
OVERVIEW
Failing public schools. #BLM. The re-invigoration of racism. The Charter schools debate. Urban Ed takes on these issues head-on, chronicling the experiences of a filmmaker who also teaches in the inner city of what U.S. News & World Report called “The Worst City To Live In the U.S.”
Aryana's a sophomore who goes to Woodrow Wilson School, a struggling charter for grades 6-12. She gets herself up, gets her 5th grade brother and kindergarten sister off to school, and tries to do enough schoolwork in between all the responsibilities to pass. Her greatest conflict at present is that her boyfriend D'Avante's strict mother thinks she's a bad influence. Aryana comes around with lots of cut lips and black eyes, so D'Avante's mom assumes she's catfighting in the streets. Not the case, unfortunately; Aryana's mom has quite a temper…
When Aryana finds out that Wilson will be closing in January, things get intense. She and most of her classmates get dumped into the huge neighboring high school - one of the worst in the state (but the only school with space). It turns out, "space" means "a seat on a leaking radiator," and the Wilson alums aren't exactly wanted by the overcrowded student body or the overworked faculty.
The action of the film is split between four days - one from each season of a single academic year. Each day explores the education these students are exposed to - from the world of their homes, to the world of their classrooms and the educational bureaucracy that surrounds them, to the world of the inner city around them.
But Urban Ed is not political theater; it doesn't aim to vilify charters nor tear down public schools. It merely presents what is...and the unfortunate humans caught in the crossfire of the political debate: the downtrodden and resilient children. It's not the same ‘ole depiction of urban education you've seen before, where the white teacher in pearls has changed into black leather by the third act and saves her gangster students by allowing them to sleep at her house. This is the real story of urban education in America: not the teacher’s story…the kids’ stories. The cycles that govern their lives and the complexity of their situations.
Dialogue-driven and with a meaty ensemble of characters seldom represented in film, Urban Ed is crafted specifically to be shot on a shoestring budget in the region that inspired it.
SETTING
Our film is set at two high schools, and the homes of an ensemble of five students in one of America’s many inner cities:
WOODROW WILSON CHARTER SCHOOL
When the film begins, the ensemble cast of students goes to school at Wilson - a small, intimate 6-12 charter school with 100 students per grade. Most of the cast have been here since starting middle school, and planned to graduate from here.
SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS
Both of Urban Ed’s schools are in Springfield, which sits alongside the Connecticut River in western Mass. It’s a now- depressed boom town of the Victorian era, fighting against homelessness & low income, but rich with culture & diversity.
COMP-TECH HIGH SCHOOL
When Wilson is closed in the middle of the school year, the only school that has space for all the displaced students is a huge neighboring high school - one of the worst in the state. Neither the students nor the faculty here want the Wilson students.
CHARACTERS
The classrooms of the inner city are a beautiful tapestry of American diversity, and Urban Ed reflects that:
ARYANA
A sophomore at Woodrow Wilson, she practically parents her younger siblings while her mom works 2 jobs. She's a gifted artist at painting fingernails, but the local salon won't employ her unless she maintains a B average.
D’AVANTE
Aryana’s boyfriend struggles to balance what the streets expect of him with what his conservative mom demands. To be a strong male, according to many of his peers, is not to care about school work.
OLIVIA
A brilliant visual artist whose boyfriend (Aryana’s brother) was shot last year. Struggling with her grief, her friendship with Aryana keeps her sane as she tries to parlay her art talents into college.
NICOLA
Nicola maintains the strict Jamaican expectations of her family, and demands that her son D’Avante transcend the attitudes of the other “ghetto” kids in Springfield he hangs out with, including his girlfriend Aryana.
JILISIA
She’s got 4 kids by 3 different fathers - all who are now gone. Since her eldest son was murdered last year, she expects Aryana (now the eldest), to help out. She works 2 jobs, and fights to ward off the anger of her situation.
BEANS
Homeless since he decided to stand up to the guy who moved in with his mom, Beans now sleeps in his cousin's car on the southside. He's a smart kid whose daily life is so riddled with difficulty that school focus is impossible.
MASSEY
That urban teacher who kids really like, but who doesn't take shit. He's friendly, and will even curse in class to show you he's passionate, but won't lower the bar and expect less "because you're an urban kid".
HAWA
An African refugee new to the U.S., Hawa has very little in common with the other black kids at her school, and struggles to get the support she needs - being a Swahili speaker where all the school’s ESL resources are in Spanish.
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
In an effort to keep our portrait authentic and grounded in the tri-city area that inspired it, Urban Ed is being produced in a very unique manner, outside the Hollywood establishment. The only way a micro-budget film like this is tenable is through community partnerships, and Urban Ed has many partners in the area that wants to see the film get made. They are:
Holyoke Cultural Council
Springfield Cultural Council
Chicopee Cultural Council
Holyoke Media
Homegrown Springfield / Sodexo
ChicopeeFresh
If you are interested in forming a community partnership, Contact Us.
HELP GET IT MADE
Producers Wade Wofford & James Lightfoot are trying to make Urban Ed a reality.
If you are interested in forming a community partnership, introducing us to press, investors, politicians or industry-leaders with a passion for education, or doing anything else, please reach out to us via our Contact Form.
