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Project of the Day: 'Oyler'

Here’s your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you’ll have the chance to vote for your favorite.

In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments.

Oyler

Tweetable Logline: A Cincinnati public school fights to break the cycle of poverty in its Urban Appalachian neighborhood.

Elevator Pitch: “Oyler” tells the story of a dramatic turnaround in one of Cincinnati’s poorest neighborhoods. Before 2006, almost no one from Lower Price Hill finished high school, much less went to college. Under the leadership of long-serving principal Craig Hockenberry, the local Oyler School has transformed into a gleaming “community learning center,” combining academic, health and social services under one roof. Produced in association with public radio’s “Marketplace,” the film follows Hockenberry and senior Raven Gribbins through a year of school, exploring how a community approach to education helps kids overcome the obstacles of poverty to graduate and go to college.

Production Team: 

Amy Scott – Director / Producer
Patrick Wright – Editor
Glenn Hartong – DP
Stacy Doose – DP 

About the film: I first encountered Oyler School while reporting a story for “Marketplace,” the public radio show. Oyler is in a really tough, Urban Appalachian neighborhood in Cincinnati, and it’s like no school I’d ever seen. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and sends kids home with food for the weekend. The school has its own health clinic, vision center, and mental health counselors. The principal was extremely charismatic. And thanks to all this support, kids from the neighborhood are graduating in numbers for the first time in recent history. I got hooked, and knew this had to be a documentary film.

Current Status: We have a 53-minute rough cut that we continue to refine and are raising finishing funds on Kickstarter.

For more information and to support this project: Kickstarter Page

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