Parents' Guide to Sentenced

This is a devastating documentary that offers intimate portraits of families in distress and under-resourced, at-risk children. Viewers might wish Sentenced, which promotes individuals getting involved in a literacy program to help children read, offered more by way of solutions at the policy or societal level. That's because the film provides significant statistics to bolster its presentation of the lifelong negative impacts of illiteracy, and the many root causes of kids falling behind in reading at early ages. It will tear your heart out to hear their stories and see how illiteracy, and its accompanying disadvantages, becomes intergenerational. Can't we do more as a society to tackle this injustice?

The statistics aren't woven into the narrative in an especially artful or cinematic way, but they are brought to vivid life through the individual portrayals. We see firsthand how childhood trauma, absent parents, and missed school days have led the diverse selection of profiled adults to more difficult lives, from health problems to addiction issues to persistent poverty and unemployment. Even though they themselves are loving parents, their children are already at a disadvantage, like one who must miss school to take his mother to daily methadone treatments. All of the people profiled deserve better, and their stories will stay with you.