Chalk

Made by teachers for teachers, this local indie – which now sports the imprimatur of executive producer Morgan Spurlock – offers no easy answers to its statistic that 50% of teachers quit within their first three years on the job. It is the anti-Hollywood teacher movie, shrugging off the suggestion that students would learn more if only teachers cared more, worked harder, or stayed later. Instead we see in mock-documentary format four teachers struggling through an apparently typical school year at fictitious Harrison High, where the windbag principal speaks in military metaphor and a “teacher integrity” program has been launched to prevent the theft of staplers and copier abuse. (Though the copier, of course, is always broken.) Mrs. Reddell (Haragan) is a first-year assistant principal who used to teach choir; she starts the year determined but starry-eyed (“As you know, Mr. Fletcher was found guilty, so there was an opening”) but winds up estranged from her best friend, Coach Webb (Janelle Schremmer), who is labor to her management. Meanwhile, Mr. Lowrey (Troy Schremmer) transitions awkwardly from a career in engineering to teaching history, and soul-patched cool guy Mr. Stroope (Mass) curries favor for the Teacher of the Year award. With scenes largely improvised by the cast and a familiar milieu of interoffice mailboxes and break rooms, the film is effective as situational workplace comedy – the press notes compare it to The Office – but the air of futility is particularly thick for these working slobs. Mr. Lowrey can’t take one kid aside without the rest of the class erupting into chaos; the zero-tolerance lockout policy for tardy students is inconsistently applied; no one will join Coach Webb’s 6:30am walking club. The script (written by Akel and Mass, a teacher of geography) makes clear that getting even one child on track is a victory – an inspirational message in its way, though it acknowledges that there is such a thing as too little, too late in the American high school. On the filmmaking side, Steven Schaefer’s inventive DV cinematography lends polish to the production, but some of the transitions between scenes are rough. Just the same, Akel and Mass are freshmen of promise indeed. Chalk received both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the last Austin Film Festival, as well as a host of other awards. (The Austin Film Society hosts Akel, Mass, and other members of the Chalk team for a Q&A following the 6:45 and 9:20pm screenings on Friday and Saturday, along with an afterparty. See p.60 of this week's Screens section for an interview with Akel, Mass, and Spurlock.)