The Reading Room (2005) (TV)

Director:

Georg Stanford Brown

Writer (WGA):

Randy Feldman (written by)

Release Date:

November 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Making good on a promise he made to his dying wife, a widower (Jones) opens a reading room, a place where people can learn to read. Despite his goodwill, problems in the neighborhood threaten his establishment. |

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

James Earl Jones	...	William Campbell
Joanna Cassidy	...	Diana Weston
Douglas Spain	...	Javier
Keith Robinson	...	Darrel
Monique Coleman	...	Leesha
Kathryne Dora Brown	...	Jillian
Gabby Soleil	...	Majoli
Idris Muhammed	...	Stephon
Austin Marques	...	Edgar (as Austin Noah Marques)
Jessica Szohr	...	Dayva (as Jessica Karen Szohr)
Spencir Bridges	...	Lamont Hawkins
Tim Reid	...	Douglas Bradshaw
Georg Stanford Brown	...	Rahim
Christian Monzon	...	Omar
Mike Gomez	...	Keeley

MPAA:

Rated PG for some violence, thematic elements and mild language.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:PG | Australia:PG

Company:

Alpine Medien Productions

After the death of his wife, a Professor (James Earl Jones) opens a reading room in the neighborhood of his youth.

These comments are from the perspective of a literacy educator and teacher educator. I found this movie by accident as I was doing the normal flip through the channels until I find something worth watching. I missed the first part of the movie and joined in when a teacher brought a student who 'couldn't' read to the Professor for help. While the movie is a nice, heartwarming story, it really a movie that moved me to begin to look for opportunities to provide a reading room in my little town. My little town may be too small for one similar to his but the premise will be the same - a safe place to come if you can't read, want to learn to read, need help with exams and test-taking, or any literacy issue. The Reading Room shows us how to do something - give something back - for our own communities that is more than give some money. It promotes the democratic ideals of our nation by providing access to and opportunities for engaging with books. In our poorest neighborhoods it is the limited access to and extremely limited funds for books and literacy resources in general that help create and perpetuate disconnections between academic success and under served populations.