Still Waters: A Small School with Big Ideas

Making waves in Brooklyn, Still Waters in a Storm is an extraordinary one-room schoolhouse that meets during after-school hours. Yale graduate Steven Haff found himself at a crisis both personally and professionally. Struggling with bouts of manic depression and witnessing the cycle of violence and poverty within the Brooklyn public schools where he worked, Haff needed to find a new solution for his own life and for the education of his students. Increasingly frustrated with institutions not preparing lifelong learners and saddened by the plight of immigrants, he established his schoolhouse for Latinx immigrants; it is run by two staff and a plethora of volunteers and currently has a waiting list of about 300. This docudrama spends a year in Haff's classroom as the youngsters focus on creative writing and Latin. Most of the film is spent in the classroom, although there is footage in students' homes to offer perspective on their everyday lives and experiences. Haff demonstrates that good writing "makes us care about the characters," which is exactly what he does here.