Combining myriad source materials, interviews, readings by celebrities, and narration, "With All Deliberate Speed" moves from segregation, through the Supreme Court cases that led to Brown vs. Board of Education and into the present day devastation of the public school system.
Made by Peter Gilbert(Hoop Dreams, At the Death House Door, Kartemquin Films),
much of the film is spent on meeting and detailing the struggles of black students and their community in fighting court cases which led to Brown. It is a searing reminder of how far we have come that such violence is no longer commonplace. Mixed in with these testimonials though is contemporary footage of black students in today's dilapidated and, once again, segregated schools. Instead of using the law to segregate white students from black, today's white America uses their financial advantages to put their children in private schools and once again, limits the funding of the facilities, thereby leaving black students in unsafe buildings with few books and little respect.
I am torn in my opinion of the film. I think that it is excellently crafted. The narration by Jeffrey Wright is, as is everything he does, marvelous. And yet, the film misses the drama of the subject. It comes close, but I'm not sure that I understood the fear of these children. I am profoundly affected by their continuing emotions on the subject. To know that these experiences have stayed with them all of their lives is profound. And I sympathize greatly with today's student activists, battling a system so much larger than themselves. But the overall tone of the film is sadness that so little has been accomplished by such a great victory. I think I want to see the rage of injustice, but that might just be my personal enjoyment of indignation.
