Laura Paglin films in the news...
By Andrea Simakis
The Plain Dealer
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...
PBS | Sound of Ideas
A new milestone in education was touted last week: 80 percent of students nationwide graduate high school. But that still means 1 in every 5 students does not get a high school diploma. WVIZ PBS brings you the story of Tyree Stewart, a drop out who is now working on a college degree. And we'll learn what safety nets are in place for students who may be at risk of dropping out or getting expelled...
By Carlo Wolff | Staff Reporter
Cleveland Jewish News
“Facing Forward: A Student’s Story,” Laura Paglin’s documentary about Cleveland inner-city kid Tyree Stewart’s experience with the innovative Entrepreneurship Preparatory School, is a tale of struggle, aspiration and eventual triumph...
By Rachel Stern | Patch Staff
Palo Alto Patch
United Nations Association Film Festival brings documentaries such as Facing Forward to Palo Alto high schools.
It's a rigorous and structured academic environment. The middle schoolers are entitled to only two bathroom breaks in their 10 hour day, have to be in class at 7 am every morning, and must don the same plaid uniforms throughout the non-stop academic year...
By Joe Shearer
The Film Yap
As an education documentary, “Facing Forward” is a solid, engaging look at an oddity in the American educational system.
The E Prep school is a super-strict inner-city prep school in Cleveland, which takes drastic steps to protect students. Talking out of turn? Detention. Talking at lunchtime? Detention. Holding your books in the wrong hand? Detention, or you at least get yelled at...
By Andrea Simakis
The Plain Dealer
If you think you’ve seen everything you need to know about the crisis in urban education after watching “Waiting for Superman,” think again. Director Laura Paglin spent three years inside Entrepreneurship Preparatory School, a charter school on Cleveland’s East Side that boasts test scores that are among the highest in the state. Smartly, Paglin focuses her lens on one student, seventh-grader Tyree Stewart, a charmer who arrives at E Prep barely able to read but with dreams of becoming a “billionaire scientist”...
By Simone Barros
City News
In the midst of furious political protests over teacher unions’ collective bargaining rights and the national debate of America’s lag in education especially in poor and minority communities, the 35th Cleveland International Film Festival presents the film, “Facing Forward” highlighting the solutions taking place right here in a Cleveland charter school...
By Andrea Simakis
The Plain Dealer
When software entrepreneur John Zitzner approached Cleveland filmmaker Laura Paglin about shooting a documentary about a fledgling charter school he'd helped start on the city's East Side, she was intrigued. But first, she laid down some ground rules: She would have "complete creative control" and act as an independent entity. And it "wouldn't be creating a glorified PR piece," she says...
By Sam Allard
Neighborhood Voice
In James Baldwin’s 1961 essay collection, “Nobody Knows My Name,” the author insisted black parents sent their children to white schools in the South not out of ideals or convictions.
“They want the child to receive the education which will allow him to defeat, possibly escape, and, not impossibly, help one day abolish the stifling environment in which they see, daily, so many children perish” he wrote...
Film Threat
“No Umbrella: Election Day in the City” was shot during the course of Election Day 2004 in Cleveland’s predominantly African-American East Side. Only three voting booths were delivered, which proved to be woefully inadequate for the extraordinary voter turnout. The gridlock at the polling center was compounded by rain, creating a wealth of ill-will among those forced to wait up to two hours to vote...