‘Waiting for Superman’ Trailer Might Bring You to Tears

By  · Published on May 7th, 2010

Back in my day, going to school meant waiting to use the hall pass so I could sneak off campus and head to the beach. It had little or nothing to do with using my gigantic cell phone or stopping time like “Saved By the Bell” promised me. That’s why, when I started my Doctoral program in Quantum Bubblenautics, I was in for a rude awakening and a lot of hard work.

Jokes aside, our school system is the thing most celebrated by politicians and most ignored. If the release of Babies is any indication, children are an easy path to our heartstrings, but creating a viable, working system where all children receive a quality education is a herculean task.

The system has fallen so far behind, and the situation is only getting worse with the growing gap in technology between the classes and the school system’s infuriating national checklist that rewards schools that already have money and punishes schools that can’t raise grades because they can’t afford chalk.

A new trailer for Waiting for Superman hit the web today, and it’s enough to bring the tear ducts right to the edge (especially if you’re a teacher or know one):

I admire director Davis Guggenheim for two specific reasons that both have to do with Michael Moore.

  1. He doesn’t toss himself into the documentary.
  2. He makes documentaries about current issues that are still fixable.

Moore has created an onslaught of crappy documentaries that feel more like someone’s failed one-man show than a true document of events, and other than Sicko, his films are mostly looks back at all the information about one horrible event or time period in recent history so people can be outraged without being able to do anything.

It’s nice to see the opposite being done. Refreshing even with the tears.

What do you think?

Check out the hi-res version over at Apple.com.

Related Topics:

Movie stuff at VanityFair, Thrillist, IndieWire, Film School Rejects, and The Broken Projector Podcast@brokenprojector | Writing short stories at Adventitious.