It looks like HBO Max wants to start 2021 on a very positive note. The streaming service will premiere the documentary The Infamous Future on New Year’s Day 2021.
The Infamous Future tells the story of the young Black and Latino students enrolled at Eagle Academy, a school in the Bronx that is part of the Eagle Academy network. The Academy was formed in 2004 after a report from Columbia University showed that 75% of the inmates in the entire New York correctional system came from seven boroughs in New York City.
These neighborhoods—Lower East Side in Manhattan, South/Central Bronx, Bedford Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East New York in Brooklyn and South Jamaica in Queens—are, as the film’s trailer explains, where “some of the lowest performing schools” are located.
“A lot of people believe that [if] you’re from the South Bronx, you’re not gonna make it, you’re not gonna go to college, you’re not gonna be what you want to be,” says Eagle Academy student Joshua Perez, who is Afro-Latino.
Since its creation, the Academy has exhibited a high graduation rate and a “model that prepares 98% of [its] students for colleges and universities across the United States.”
In the trailer, Perez’s mother, Rosa, adds that she is “proud of being able to see [Joshua] graduate high school because I didn’t do it.”
Film producer John Campbell says the inspiration behind the film is to tell “a success story on education, particularly focusing on black and brown boys.”
“Eagle Academy is that story,” he said in a statement. “The students and educators’ success not only impacts their lives, but the lives of the entire community, inspiring all generations.”
The Infamous Future premieres on HBO Max Jan. 1, 2021.