I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School (1993) on Netflix

Plot summary

In North Philadelphia, the documentary observes the children of Stanton Elementary, an inner-city school. Roughly nine in every ten of those students live below the poverty line. Deanna Burney, the principal, is devoted to the school, which the film presents as grossly underfunded and understaffed. Made in an unflinching verité style, it shows children working to overcome their difficulties. Through a series of vignettes, the film follows children who grow up outside the American dream, and it echoes the arguments then current in the country's political discussion, holding that the hope for these children's future depends on their education succeeding.