Sticks & Stones

Well shot, decently acted... not such a powerful film. It feels stereotyped to me-- the white woman is a bad guy not because she feels evil, but because of her ethnicity. The overly offended parents are protagonists because they are African Americcan. It doesn't feel real. I wanted more out of it. I wanted more tension. Essentially, I wanted to feel something. Instead it feels like watching an educational video on why people of all races need to be nice to each other. The art direction, the cinematography and the writing are wonderful and deserve recognition. The acting is the only problem, it feels weak. Perhaps we're living in the wrong decade for this to be as powerful as it was intended to be. I just wanted the antagonist to deserve being yelled at. If anything it comments on classes in elementary schools being too big! The teacher can't pay attention to the individual student, so she doesn't know that the child can read at an early age. Or maybe it makes a nasty comment that white people are quick to judge? Hopefully that is not the case!

Wow! It took a lot of work to shoot but I had a lot of help. Thank you all for your support!

When Sticks & Stones was screened the very first question I was asked was "Did this really happen?" My answer was "Definitely." The actual exchange between my parents and teacher did not contain the dialogue my characters exchange but the situation played out similarly and my parents eventually convinced my teacher that I could read. This film represents my experiences with the American educational system. In my suburban kindergarten I was the one Black student in a class of Whites. In high school I was one of many Black students and I began to notice that many of my obviously intelligent Black classmates were performing poorly academically. Eventually, I realized that many of them had internalized the standards that society stigmatized them with: Black lives are not as important as White ones.

Some are convinced and de-value themselves. They believe that they can't achieve and then get the expected result- substandard achievements. I had a model to follow, both of my parents have advanced degrees, there was never a question of my success. So, there are 2 parts to the issue, parents and teachers. We need teachers that don't hold negative preconceptions and we need parents to give children positive psychological support, so that they never question their ability, instead we fight back and question our teachers and society. Although I never questioned my reading ability, as Rehema in the film does, I believe that the motivations and behaviors of my characters fit an existing, real-life, schema.