10 Bullsh*t Documentaries That Aren't Worth Your Time

6. Waiting For "Superman"

The film that launched a thousand PTA meetings, this documentary by director Davis Guggenheim and producer Lesley Chilcott analysed the perceived and endemic failure of the American public education system, making such bold claims as only 20 to 35 percent of eighth graders in the US read at grade level, whilst following the struggles of several students as they strive to be accepted into a charter school (the equivalent of English academies or "free schools"). The film was made as a rallying calls to parents and politicians alike to look at their broken system, and to strive to make things better for future generations. President Barrack Obama is reported to be a fan, and supposedly refocussed on education a little more after seeing it. Which would be all well and good, if Waiting For "Superman" wasn't full to the brim of bullsh*t. That statistic about how few eighth graders can read at the expected level? Totally false. It's more like 75%, which isn't perfect, but is far less troubling. Almost all the statistics in the movie seem to have been pulled out of the filmmakers' collective posteriors, and rather than aiming to improve things for all kids, the conclusions the documentary come to would only help one group: rich people. Charter schools really aren't all that (and get good results by doing things like excluding classes of under-performing kids who would ruin their average), and critics have accused the film of wanting to "break the teacher's unions and to privatize education," while driving teachers' wages even lower and running "schools like little corporations." So full of nonsense and potentially damaging, nice work guys!