Matt Damon narrates next Rivertown film
The Rockland filmmakers who chronicled the 20-year saga to build the Palisades Center Mall in 2010’s “Megamall” have turned their attention to charters, vouchers and school reform.
Producers Sarah Mondale and Vera Aronow enlisted the help of Oscar-winner Matt Damon. And they didn’t have to go to Mars to get the newly nominated star of "The Martian" to narrate their 90-minute film, “Backpack Full of Cash.”
“When we went out to L.A. to record the narration, he couldn’t have been nicer,” director Mondale said. “He said he really believed in the topic and he knows a lot about it. It’s great to have him in our corner.”
Damon’s mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, is a professor of early childhood education and an expert in the field.
Rivertown Film hosts a “fine-cut screening” of the yet-unfinished film at 8 p.m., Jan. 23 at the Nyack Center, 58 Depew Ave, Nyack. Tickets at www.rivertownfilm.org. The running time is 90 minutes.
Aronow said “Backpack Full of Cash” looks at school reforms in Philadelphia in the 2013-14 school year, with side trips to New Orleans, Nashville, Union City, New Jersey and Baton Rouge.
Mondale says she saw the impact of school reform first-hand when she was teaching foreign language at several schools in Westchester.
After seeing "Waiting for Superman" and reading Diane Ravitch's book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education," Mondale concluded "someone has to look at this and look at the other side of this."
"I'm a strong believer in public schools," says Mondale, the film's director. "My parents were public educators. The fact is that public schools are not failing. In Matt Damon narrates next Rivertown film: