Our America
OUR AMERICA is a SHOWTIME Original Picture directed by Ernest Dickerson.
It premieres on Sunday, July 28 at 8:00pm, but has already received accolades at the
2002 Sundance Film Festival.
Our own Peter Paige stars alongside Josh Charles, Brandon Hammond, Roderick Pannell, Irma P. Hall, Vanessa Williams And Mykelti Williamson.
Summary:
Based on a true story, OUR AMERICA is a stark portrait of the urban
ghetto landscape as seen through the eyes of two young
African-American teens, LeAlan Jones (Roderick Pannell) and Lloyd
Newman (Brandon Hammond).
After two years of pitching his idea, National Public Radio
producer David Isay is finally given the go ahead to create a
documentary about life in the ghettos. An exhaustive search for the
voices to narrate his "sound portrait" leads Isay to two teenagers,
LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, growing up in the shadows of the Ida
B. Wells Housing projects of Chicago. Isay trains them to operate
the recording equipment and they begin their documentary, as Lloyd
says "like a diary." The boys take listeners on a journey that
includes poverty, violence and drugs. It is a world where boys are
fathers by 15 and dead by 17. It is a world where kids watch their
friends being cut down by jail, drugs or drive-by shootings. Under
Isay's guidance and mentoring, they deliver a deeply emotional
depiction that is both disturbing and remarkable -- disturbing for
its overwhelming despair and violence and remarkable for the
strength and courage of these two boys and their families.
After their first award-winning NPR documentary, "Ghetto Life 101,"
LeAlan and Lloyd embark on another documentary after a
five-year-old boy is dropped 14 floors to his death by two
youngsters (ages 10 and 11) in their neighborhood. Unsatisfied with
the "official" version of the story, LeAlan and Lloyd set out to
understand the real story and inform listeners how and why this
tragedy happened. With the help of David Isay, they seek to uncover
how the environment in which these boys lived and the way they were
raised played a part in setting the stage for Eric Morse's death.
The resulting documentary, "Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse,"
earns Isay, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman the prestigious Peabody
Award, making Jones and Newman the youngest journalists ever to
receive this honor. With Isay's support, encouragement and
friendship, the documentaries give LeAlan and Lloyd the opportunity
to learn about themselves, their neighborhood and the world. In the
process, they teach NPR listeners that wherever they live, there is
no "their America" or "my America," only OUR AMERICA.
The teleplay for OUR AMERICA was written by Emmy Award-winner
Gordon Rayfield ("Stand Up," "Law & Order") based on the book Our
America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago by LeAlan
Jones and Lloyd Newman with multi-Peabody Award-winning and NPR
producer David Isay ("Witness to an Execution," "Ghetto Life 101"
and "Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse"). LeAlan Jones has a
cameo in the SHOWTIME film. OUR AMERICA is a Joseph Stern
production in association with Come Sunday Productions.
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