By Andrea Simakis
The Plain Dealer
Coming Up
Facing Forward: A Student's Story
What: A documentary chronicling an inner-city teen's journey through E Prep, a tough Cleveland charter school. Directed by Laura Paglin.
When: Tuesday, May 13 at 9 p.m., May 17 at 11 p.m., May 18 at 4 p.m. and May 19 at 10 p.m.
Where: WVIZ/PBS Cleveland.
Running time: 1 hour.
If you didn't catch Laura Paglin's standout documentary "Facing Forward" when it premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival in 2011, it's no wonder you're depressed. But thanks to a co-production of WVIZ/PBS and Creative Filmmakers Association, you've got another shot.
A new and updated version of the film is airing in Cleveland and on other PBS stations throughout the country in May.
Paglin, who lives in Cleveland Heights, spent three years and shot some 350 hours of film following the trials and triumphs of Tyree, a compelling protagonist with charm and troubles to spare.
The result is a both an intimate portrait of a boy struggling to survive at home and at school and an engrossing trip down the halls of an institution trying to salvage the academic lives of a handful of poor, mostly black students, casualties of an urban public school system plagued by low achievement scores and grim drop-out rates.
Tyree was in seventh grade when Paglin met him and the TV version of the documentary includes fresh footage of her teen star, today at 18, nearly four years later.
Don't miss this vital film - as dramatic and moving a story as any work of fiction.