During the 2015-16 school year, Steve James, the documentarian behind “Hoop Dreams” and “Life Itself,” and his team of filmmakers observed students, families and staff members at Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. The community has a rich history when it comes to race; Oak Park’s resistance to white flight in the late 1960s led to a diverse population that still exists today. Yet a racial divide remains — the wealth and educational disparities between white and nonwhite residents are often vast.
“America to Me,” a 10-part docu-series airing weekly on Starz beginning Sunday, was initially born out of Mr. James’s personal connection to the community. A longtime Oak Park resident, he sent three children to the school between 2002 and 2010, and perceived stark differences in the experiences of one son, who struggled with Attention Deficit Disorder, and his daughter, a “high-flying” Advanced Placement student. “It’s not like my son was ignored,” he said. “It was just a very different experience.”
He continued, “I just remember thinking one day, ‘How much different would my son’s experience be if he were black and here, too? If you added that into the equation?’”…