Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog: Harlem charter schools…coming to movie theaters everywhere

This article mentions both The Lottery and Waiting for Superman:

Guggenheim's film is one of two new documentaries that feature Harlem charter schools prominently and cast them in a glowing light. The other is "The Lottery," which will be released in May and which follows a group of families seeking entrance into Eva Moskowitz's Harlem Success Academies.

"Waiting for Superman" follows five children from around the country as they navigate the public schools system. None of them are Harlem Children's Zone students, said an HCZ spokesman, Marty Lipp, but Canada offers commentary throughout the film. In an interview, Guggenheim calls Canada "perhaps the strongest voice" in the film.

… [E]mbracing the belief that good teachers make good schools, and ultimately questioning the role of unions in maintaining the status quo, Guggenheim offers hope by exploring innovative approaches taken by education reformers and charter schools that have—in reshaping the culture—refused to leave their students behind.

In addition to Canada, the film also features D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates and KIPP co-founders David Levin and Mike Feinberg. This group, along with Moskowitz, Chancellor Joel Klein and Teach for America's Wendy Kopp, all advocate broadly for high stakes accountability for schools and teachers and often clash with teachers unions.

When "An Inconvenient Truth" was released, it was accompanied by a strong off-screen anti-global warming advocacy campaign, and it looks like "Waiting for Superman" will have an off-screen activism element as well. (There's already an advocacy social media site set up for the film where highlighted news headlines include Mayor Michael Bloomberg's push to tie student test scores to teacher tenure.)

"Waiting for Superman" was the first Sundance film this year picked up for distribution by a studio and should hit theaters this fall.

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