FACTUAL DOCUMENTARIES

RIKERS HIGH

• Victor Buhler
• Society
• 2005
• 85'

Right in the center of New York stands Riker's Island, an island that the city's inhabitants would like to be able to forget. It used to be a gigantic open-air garbage dump and it became an other kind of drain. A gigantic penitentiary complex was built, receiving 15 000 inmates, mostly African-American or Hispanic. In the middle of this hell shines a sparkle of hope, a high school: Riker's High. Taking advantage of an exceptional authorization, the director followed, during a year, the dented destiny of a few teenagers, who, at the age of sixteen, eighteen can be there for the third time. They come in and out. Will this specific course spare them the vicious infernal circle of delinquency/jail in which they are now stuck? This film is an unprecedented and astonishing dive in the dark side of the American dream.

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