I Am a Promise

Stanton is an elementary school in a deprived black district of Philadelphia. Most of the 750 children have a serious social handicap which, despite their young age, they are already aware of – 90% of them live under the poverty line, most are from single-parent families and are witness to problems of violence, alcohol, crack and deliquency in their close family environment. Despite the local authorities’ weak commitment and a lack of resources, the headmistress Deanna Burney and her staff are trying to make the school into a place where the children can regain confidence in themselves and feel secure. This unfortunately means that learning in the strictly academic sense often comes second. For over one year, the filmmakers have followed the life of the school, focusing more particularly on the portraits of a few children like Cornelius and Nadia, and on the headmistress’s desperate struggle.