As a survivor of twelve years of Catholic schooling run by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Nuns, I can vouch that there are many good teachers. We often only hear about the bad ones. At the end of this review, I will tell you the story of Sister Baby Whale.
Brave the Dark
Angel Studios (the same studio that gave us The Chosen) has given us another great film that is based on a true story. Brave the Dark is directed by Damian Harris and stars Nicholas Hamilton, Jared Harris, Sasha Bashim, Tobias Segal, and Jamie Harris. The film begins with Nate Williams (Nicholas Hamilton) running for his high school track team. But Nate is also running from memories of a traumatic event that happened when he was just a toddler.
Stan Deen (Jared Harris) is a teacher at the same school who oversees the drama and theatrical classes. Stan is also dealing with a personal loss. But Stan is a good teacher and knows how to encourage his students to do their best without all that boring, preachy stuff. Stan suspects that Nate is struggling with school and fitting in, so he invites Nate to join the theatre class. Nate agrees because his crush Tina (Sasha Bhasin) is in the class. In the class, Nate begins to open up, but he still has emotional demons to deal with from his past, which we see in flashbacks.
It isn’t until Nate is arrested for burglary that we and Stan Deen learn some of Nate’s history. Nate has been living in his car, and the only reason he is in track and field is that it is his only means of obtaining a clean shower. Deen actually goes to court to fight for the boy and is given temporary custody of Nate after the boy’s grandparents prove to be cold-hearted, miserable souls. A parole officer (Jamie Harris) is assigned to Nate, but the officer has seen way too many failures to have any hope for Nate completing his school year.
Conclusion
I was a bit hesitant to review this film because it was an Angel Studio production, and I honestly expected to have religious messages shoved in my face. Thankfully, for the success of this film and my low tolerance for films that preach…Brave the Dark is a beautiful story about good teachers guiding children who are trying to survive and overcome the traumatic events in their lives. I highly recommend this film, which will be available on digital platforms starting September 15.
I would say that at least 90% of the children in these United States would have landed in jail, or worse, dead…had it not been for an alert and caring teacher who reminded those children of their worth.
I worked as a substitute teacher for two Catholic schools, and I was a teacher naturalist for a Natural History Museum in Philadelphia until I retired. Most of the people who volunteered in the Changing Exhibits Hall that I managed were teenagers. You could tell right away which children were valued, and which ones needed to be told that they had something to offer the world. I loved encouraging my volunteers, but I was tough. I took no crap, and you better be doing your job if you want to work with me, which brings me to Sister Baby Whale.
That wasn’t her real name, but she was the size of a Sumo Wrestler on steroids…and she was strict. Sister taught the seventh-grade class of about 40 girls and 40 boys. The normal size of a class was eighty to ninety children. Sister Baby Whale taught the class on her own. There were no teacher aides back in the day (late 1950s), so the nuns had to establish control over the class on the first day, which Sister did using brute force. We absolutely feared her, and so did the parents who foolishly believed that they could threaten this Nun because she gave their child a failing grade. But Sister Baby Whale loved to dance, and she oversaw the yearly Broadway shows our school put on to raise money.
It was a sight to behold to see Sister Baby Whale not only tap dance as good as Bojangles, but to do a grand jete with as much grace and vigour as Marianella Nunez. Who was this stranger who smiled and joked with us as we learned the dance and song routines? It was during that month of preparation for the big show that I understood that Sister Baby Whale did love her students and wanted them to be more than the world had assigned us to be. Her constant reminders for us to reach for the stars even if the world was constantly pulling the ladder from under our feet… still rings in my ears.
Brave the Dark is a film about a good teacher, a troubled youth, and the choice to hold that ladder steady…or to pull it away.
Thank you Sister Margaret Mary.
