Pressure Cooker

USA, 2008, 99 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: African-American, Documentary, Educational, Social Issues
Language: English

MUST END Thursday, August 13
35mm presentation - Pressure Cooker profiles the lives of three high school seniors from Northeast Philadelphia, each with unique hardships but with the shared goal of winning scholarships to the country's best culinary schools. Their unlikely hero is irreverent Culinary Arts teacher Wilma Stephenson. A legend in the school system, Mrs. Stephenson's hilariously blunt boot-camp method of teaching Culinary Arts is validated by years of scholarship success. Against the backdrop of the row homes of working-class Philadelphia, she has helped countless students reach the top culinary schools in the country. And under her fierce direction, the usual distractions of high school are swept aside as Erica, Dudley and Fatoumata prepare to achieve beyond what anyone else expects from them.

DIRECTOR: Mark Becker, Jennifer Grausman
Producer: Jennifer Grausman, Myna Joseph, (executive) Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann
Editor: Mark Becker
Cinematographer: Mark Becker, Justin Schein, Leigh Iacobucci
US Distributor: Bev Pictures

Official Film Website