Please learn about my new film project, College Material
After receiving awards and accolades for my first feature-length documentary, I've begun filming my second documentary film, under the working title, College Material.
For this film, I am lucky enough to be following a group of New York City high school students who attend Humanities Preparatory Academy in Manhattan, a progressive public high school that accepts a wide variety of students throughout the school year, and attracts a diverse student body.
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Although Humanities Prep is a college preparatory school, few of the students come from families where anyone has ever attended college, so these students are mostly unfamiliar to the application experience or where they should apply or what to expect.
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However, the school has a volunteer college counselor named Bill Short who has been helping students there for 20 years and each year picks out a select group of students to whom he gives extra guidance. I will be following the selected group of students from the Class of 2024 as he helps them navigate through the admissions process. And this year, it is destined to be rife with change.
Affirmative Action was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2023, along with the Biden loan repayment program. Meanwhile, AI threatens to upend the entire college admissions experience and a mental health crisis pervades young people in the US. This is largely due to from residual effects that the disruption from Covid wrought, along with anxiety from social media, and other pressures.
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My film aims to looks at the issues and to discover what a college education represents to young people today and what it takes to get into a top college in 2023-24. I intend for this film to shed light on what education means to these students and the challenges they must face in order to secure a good education and future for themselves.
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You can take a look at a trailer and make a tax-deductible donation by clicking here.