When I was a lad in high school, violence on the premises was generally confined to the antics of a handful of Christian Brothers wielding leather straps. Occasionally they used their fists. Among the students, we were more likely to attempt to injure each other with sarcasm and ridicule. On the playing fields, when we were obliged to play Gaelic Football or Hurling, nobody was moved to do bodily harm on anybody. Besides, we preferred playing soccer, a game that's more about running and control than physical intimidation. Even when I escaped the Christian Brothers for an entirely different kind of school, fighting and factional feuds were never part of the situation. On contemporary TV shows set in high schools, it's much the same. There's hardly any violence -- unless you count the assault on taste that is the typical outfit of a high-school student -- and everybody is just very moody. Apparently that's not the reality.
Waging Peace (tonight, CTV, 8 p.m.) opens with a terrifying picture of life in a Canadian school. The program chronicles a year at Caledonia Junior High in Dartmouth, N.S., a deeply troubled school that has a history of racial tensions and violence. It has had four principals in four years and, just two months into the last school year, the principal quit. When we see this happen in tonight's program, nobody can blame the man. After just a few minutes of footage, the fists are flying during a lacrosse game in the school gym. These students are used to settling their differences with their fists and casual violence erupts all the time.
Amazingly, in the first few months of the school year, members of the Canadian military who had served as peacekeepers were brought into the school to try to help. It's shocking to watch the kids in the classroom mock and jeer the peacekeepers who tell them about respect and dignity. These kids couldn't give a damn. They travel in packs, throw rocks at each other, vandalize the school and pay little attention to the teachers. If a fistfight is broken up by a teacher in a hallway, it continues a few minutes later around the corner.
Fortunately, Waging Peace eventually turns into an optimistic, almost feel-good story. When the principal quits, vice-principal Edy Guy-François takes over and starts putting a different attitude into place. She looks like a motherly black woman but Guy-François is very shrewd and very tough. Her style is an astute blend of bribery and tough discipline. It also means cracking down instantly on violence and incidents in which teachers are ignored or intimidated. She patrols the halls, confronts students, hovers outside classroom doors and just keeps going.
Caledonia is a school that suffers from problems that emerge from the local community -- there are white kids and black kids uneasily mingling. There are rich kids and poor kids. All the tensions of a town and a society are distilled and heightened in the crowded school building. But it's mostly a matter of tradition -- the kids have gotten used to violence and open warfare. Guy-François makes changes that have a dramatic impact on the kids. Punishment for various misdemeanours means the kids can't attend the school dances or play on the sports teams. When those privileges are taken away, the kids notice. By the end of the program we've seen a significant change. We see the kids engage in a bubble-gum-blowing competition at the school carnival. Guy-François has done something positive, but she also notes that one day, near the end of term, six kids were sent home from the school for outrageous behaviour. Anyone who thinks teachers have it easy had better watch this. The Big Show (Wednesday, CBC, 8 p.m.) is easily the best documentary made about the Toronto International Film Festival. There have been lots of TV shows about the festival and usually that means idiotic star-struck entertainment reporters gibbering about Hollywood stars. Here we get two hours that follow five people through last year's 25th anniversary event. We eventually understand that the festival is actually about movies, not stars, and that it's also a very important business venue.
At the program's centre is Blaine Thurier, a filmmaker from Vancouver whose shoestring-budget film, Low Self Esteem Girl, was picked for inclusion. When we meet him before he goes to Toronto, he's cheerful and excited. A few days into the festival, he's at the end of his tether. Desperately trying to sell the movie to distributors (with the help of a pal who is a complete amateur in the film business), he's going on a few hours sleep and his clothes have started to smell. We see him on Bloor Street in Toronto, desperately asking passersby if there's a coin-laundry anywhere nearby. He's shattered by the film festival's pace.
We also meet Joel Schumacher, the veteran Hollywood director who is trying to resurrect some integrity in his career with the movie Tigerland. Smooth and cool, he's seen it all. The happiest person we meet is Millie Kwan, a systems analyst who takes her vacation at festival time and tries to see 50 movies in 10 days. She represents what the festival is supposed to mean to Toronto. The most revealing scene -- and there are many choice moments -- involves Alison Thompson, a British sales agent, as she stands on Avenue Road, in the middle of traffic, trying to negotiate the sale of a movie on her cellphone. It's just business. Lost (Wednesday, NBC, Global, 8 p.m.) is a new reality show arriving on the same night as The Amazing Race (Wednesday, CBS, CTV, 9 p.m.). Both shows involve cute-looking people trying to get someplace and win money. Are you excited yet? Dates and times may vary across the country. Please check local listings or visit