Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 27, 1993 TAG: 9311270271
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM JICHA FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It wasn't much of a journey. She only had to go a few miles from her Chicago TV studio to the other side of town, home of some of the roughest public housing projects in America. The trip was to make "There Are No Children Here" (airing Sunday night at 9 on WSET-Channel 13), an ABC movie about life in the Henry Horner Homes, an environment where brazen drug dealing and sporadic gunfire are ways of life.
Hence the title, which comes from a nonfiction best seller by Alex Kotlowitz. There are plenty of young people in this hood, but they aren't permitted the luxury of being children. From the time they are old enough to climb out of a crib, they are recruited to join a gang, enticed with drugs and constantly engulfed in life-threatening violence.
Say this for Winfrey. When she does pro-bono work, she is very bono.
Not only is she marvelous in the film, she donated her acting fee - TV movies generally pay stars about $250,000 - to set up a scholarship fund for kids from the Horner projects.
Winfrey plays LaJoe Rivers, a woman whose story mirrors that of countless others in America's inner cities. The single mother of six is reliant on public housing and public assistance and wishes neither were the case. Her dream is to escape the projects and become self-sufficient. However, the demoralizing reality of her situation suffocates her good intentions.
Her husband shows up just often enough to be a disruptive element and to get her in trouble with the welfare monitors, who suspect her of hiding the fact that there is a man in the house. Her oldest son is already lost to the streets and her toddlers demand constant attention.
If she got a job, by the time she paid for child care, she would have less left than what she gets on welfare, if she has anything at all.
When she scrapes together enough to buy some material possession, it is immediately subject to being stolen by street thieves. Provided they can beat her shiftless husband and drug-addled son to it.
Nevertheless, LaJoe dedicates every day to working toward a better life for her family and instilling positive values in her offspring.
"There Are No Children Here" focuses on her two middle boys, 11-year-old Lafeyette and 9-year-old Pharoah.
Lafey - a show-stealing debut by Mark Lane - is idolized by Pharoah, played by Norman Golden II. Lafey is both Pharoah's best friend and his role model, a position which Lafey embraces. He repeatedly elicits vows from his younger brother that he will never become involved with gangs or drugs.
This is not an easy promise to keep, Lafey comes to learn first-hand. There doesn't seem to be any reward for doing the right thing in Horner, but there are alluring enticements to go wrong.
Even the threat of imprisonment represents upward mobility to some. "Jail means a roof over your head, three hots and a cot," says one youngster, who obviously isn't certain on any of those things in his everyday life in the projects.
As Lafey painfully learns, when you're from Horner, even when you play by the rules you sometimes get flagged because of guilt by association.
"There Are No Children Here" is true to its setting. There are no happy endings in places like Horner, merely encouraging developments. It's remarkable how satisfying these can be. The movie, too.
by CNB