Our America

"Our America" follows the lives of two African-American teenagers who become reporters for the NPR. They first start out by recording their daily lives growing up in a rough Chicago neighborhood. As time goes on, they start to move on to bigger subjects such as exposing the troubled lives of people in their neighborhood. They soon gain national attention when they cover a story involving two boys (ages 10 and 11) who cold-bloodily murder a four year-old boy by throwing him out of a 14th story window.

This is a truly touching story that really shows us the brutality of African-Americans living in rough neighborhoods. The acting is great too. Ernest R. Dickerson who directs this film, was also the cinematographer for several of Spike Lee's films and he really makes this movie look good. Constantly alternating between black and white and color, the film really captures the essence of the characters.

"Our America" gets a 10. Don't miss it.

In Chicago, the Afro-American teenager friends Lloyd Newman (Brandon Hamond) and LeAlan Jones (Roderick Pannell) win a contest promoted by the successful producer Dave Isay (Josh Charles) of NPR – National Public Radio – for a documentary about the daily life in the ghetto where they live. They prepare a documentary showing their routines, the life in their neighborhood, and it becomes controversial, with some negative reviews of important persons of their community. Nevertheless, they are awarded as the 1997 Chicago Citizen of the Year. Dave becomes a close friend of the boys and their families, and they decide to prepare another documentary about the death of Eric Morse, a young kid dropped from the 14th floor of a building in the compound by two other boys on 14 Nov 1994. They win the prestigious Peabody Award with their work. "Our America" is a good movie based on a true story and is about the dramatic situation of many poor people living in ghettos and slums. The story happens in North America, but it could have happened in any country in South America, Afrika, Asia, and even Europe. I liked this film because it touches a serious wound, the social debt of the society with many persons. Further, it is not corny, but it gives some hope, when we see two boys like Lloyd and LeAlan having a chance to improve their lives. It emphasizes the importance of friendship and sympathy, to help those who need. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Território Violento" ("Violent Territory")

For what ever it worth this movie/documentary is extremely boring from the beginning to the very end. The keep on ever going of using both black/white and color film that keep on switching is really annoying and very much unattractive.

The story is same old same old, talking about the bad black people neighborhood and tried to bring out the truth and tried to make us the viewer feel bad for them. At end (if you even watch it to the end) you will actually feel bad and asked one self "How did I managed to watch this entire film?"The film is sure not worth a watch cause it is damn boring.

Rating: 4/10

I don't agree with the first reviewer at all. The movie does show illegal activities on the part of the main characters as he pointed out, but that reality needs to be shown for the movie to be the least bit credible. The vandalizing of private property is not, unfortunately, and uncommon occurrence for young people. The movie shows that if you can reach these young people before random acts of vandalism grow into more serious criminal acts, you can save lives and improve society. The movie does have a unique message because it depicts, in a powerful way, the negative "world" that many similarly situated inner-city youths face. And.. it is inspiring because it reminds us of the untapped potential that may be festering beneath the surface, just waiting for inspiration and guidance. As I usually find with these kinds of movies, it takes both an intellectual thirst, and intellectual maturity, to truly appreciate the film in the way it was intended.

First of all, disregard anything the last post said. "Socially Irresponsible" is the last thing yous should say about this movie. If you want to call anything or body irresponsible, it should be our government for allowing fellow Americans to live like this. I noticed the person who posted last is from orange county and its really crazy that people who don't live in these situations are so quick to judge. This movie was one of the best projections of the "projects" that I've ever seen. Growing up in South Central L.A and Chicago's Robert Taylors, I'm here to tell you that EVERYTHING that was mentioned in the movie is true. This is one of the best "hood" movies I've seen yet. And as far as the game they were playing on the overpass, when you are poor, you'll find fun things to do on nothing. Of course it wasn't right, but kids are doing far worse things than that.