Ithuteng

Think about this: start a school in the middle of the shittiest shithole on earth, but have the students teach the classes. The students have to do pretty much everything.

The students come from the worst ghettos in the world in Soweto, South Africa. Many are rape victims. Some are HIV positive.

Instead of being a disaster, the thing turns out to be one of the most inspiring stories to come out of South Africa.

Some of the techniques I find very interesting: school uniforms, physical education, personal responsibility, wilderness retreats, scared straight trips to jails, and reenactments of rapes. That's right: they reenact rapes. The victims direct the actors to recreate the whole scene and everything leading up to it. It's a way to prove to the victim that they aren't responsible for the rape.

They also take the kids away from the most the abusive parents and keep them at school in a boarding school-like environment.

Damn! We need an Ithuteng in Orleans parish!

Here's HBO's page.

Here's the film's homepage.

The filmmakers also have an incredible story to tell.