Huge HSA3 firecracker cheer for Madeline Sackler for being a Beyond Z documentary film producer and director!! Alexandra Cheney, writing for The Wall Street Journal media, entertainment, celebrity and arts blog, Speakeasy, highlighted Madeline Sackler and her documentary, The Lottery Film, which has been shortlisted as one of 15 documentaries eligible for nomination for an Oscar this year. Kiss your Brain, Madeline!
The Other Documentary on Education
By Alexandra Cheney
- Sackler, flanked by Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Craig Hatkoff (l) and Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education Joel Klein (r)
Madeleine Sackler has entered her very own lottery of sorts. The first-time documentary director’s film, “The Lottery” has been shortlisted as one of the 15 titles eligible to be nominated for an Oscar. The 81-minute film follows four families from Harlem and the Bronx in the three months leading up to a charter school lottery.
Sackler, along with CBS news anchor Katie Couric, outgoing New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein and New York’s police commissioner Ray Kelly, gathered for lunch at Brasserie Ruhlmann recently to discuss the film and its Oscar odds.
“We are in peril of losing the American dream,” Klein said to a room filled with parents, journalists, hedge fund managers and film producers. Just before he spoke, Klein scribbled some notes on the back of a restaurant menu. “If you have a heart, this film, and the statistics on education in this country, will rip it right out of your chest,” he said.
Another documentary released this year, “Waiting for Superman,” also concentrates on America’s education system and was directed by Davis Guggenheim, who also directed “An Inconvenient Truth,” the award-winning documentary about global warming. But where “Waiting for Superman” tracks children from Los Angeles to Silicon Valley to Washington D.C. — and, yes, to a Harlem charter school — “The Lottery” strictly focuses on Harlem and the Bronx.
“I wanted to show that it is possible to educate kids in poor communities at an exceptionally high level,” Sackler said during a phone interview later. “This is one school that shows what’s possible.”
“The Lottery” focuses on Harlem Success Academy Charter Schools, a series of free, public elementary schools in Harlem and the Bronx (Bronx Success Academy), the first of which first opened in 2006. Along with the four families vying for a spot, the film dives into the conflict of charter schools versus public schools, a debate which only grew throughout the film.
During her months of shooting, Sackler didn’t receive access to film in traditional public schools, nor would anyone from the United Federation of Teachers, a union with over 200,000 members, including public school teachers, speak to her.
Despite limited access, Sackler presents a film laden with statistics and insight from the likes of Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey and Geoffrey Canada, the president of Harlem Children’s Zone.
Sackler isn’t a parent nor does she have a personal connection with the Harlem neighborhood. But according to the possible Oscar contender, education is the most important topic across America. “What does this circumstance, the education crisis, the achievement gap, mean for families and communities all over country when 58% of black fourth graders are functionally illiterate?” she said.
