PRESS

NBC News
March 16, 2015

“Education Is Not Great Equalizer for Black Americans”

Excerpt:
André Robert Lee, 44, a filmmaker in New York, has been bluntly aware since he was a teenager of the limits on education to change the relationship between wealth and race. His film “Prep School Negro” is an autobiography of growing up as the son of a black garment factory worker and receiving a scholarship at the age of 14 to attend a mostly white, elite private high school outside of Philadelphia.

View the full article here.

The New York Post
February 24, 2015

“‘Empire’ Strikes Back Against Whitewashed TV.”

Excerpt:
“Most television shows present black characters that are merely one- or two-dimensional, but ‘Empire’ presents the full range of the African-American experience all in one place,” says Manhattan-based filmmaker André Robert Lee, whose films “The Prep School Negro” and “I’m Not Racist . . . Am I?” explore the intersections between race, class and culture…

View the full article here.

The New York Times
February 20, 2015

“At New York Private Schools, Challenging White Privilege From the Inside.”

Excerpt:
…He has taken his film, first completed in 2008 and reworked in 2014, to hundreds of schools around the country. He maintains that the screenings have helped spur conversations about race and class that would not have been possible even 15 years ago.

View the full article here.

Newsworks.org
December 19, 2014

“Inspirational messages in The Prep School Negro for Gesu School parents.”

Excerpt:
In a film that reveals both his unflinching honesty and his gentle heart, Lee chronicles the culture shock that he experienced at Germantown Friends, and the trade-offs he made to succeed there while remaining true to his roots…..

View the full article here.

NPR
March 12, 2014

Renee Montagne interviews André Robert Lee on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Excerpt:
When André Robert Lee was 14, he got a scholarship to an elite school in Philadelphia. He tells Renee Montagne his documentary chronicles the challenges he faced as a poor kid thrust into privilege….

Download the full article here.

Slate
February 16, 2014

“Guest in a Strange House.”

Excerpt:
It’s the “not acknowledged” part that Andre’s film addresses. My deepest memory of prep school is the intense academic discussion, the plumbing of the depths of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, or Black Boy, or the Aeneid. But I’m not sure how well we plumbed our own depths together…

View the full article here.

Salon.com
June 20, 2014

Neil Drumming reviews the February 11, 2014 PBS broadcast of the extended version of The Prep School Negro for Salon.com.

Excerpt:
However, the film, which debuts tonight on World Channel as part of its America ReFramed series, is not a celebration of the benefits of a broad education, nor is it a call for more inclusiveness of minority students into the private school system. “The Prep School Negro” is actually a much more personal, and thereby poignant examination of the distance his schooling put between Lee, his sister, and their mother. While his family was proud of him, they were increasingly unable to relate to him and vice versa. The alienation and resentment that bubbled…

Download the full article here.

About.com
October 9, 2013

Blythe Grossberg reviews The Prep School Negro for About.com.

Excerpt:
The film is Lee’s thoughtful and touching attempt to come to terms with what his private school experience, his college education, and his adult life have meant for him and for his ties to his family and community.

To read the full review, click here.

ABC’s Here and Now with Kemberly Richardson
January 8, 2012

André Robert Lee interviewed on January 8th, 2012 by Kemberly Richardson on Here and Now.

GFS Bulletin, Spring 2010
November 4, 2010

The Spring 2010 issue of the GFS Bulletin features a full page article about André Robert Lee and his film “The Prep School Negro”.

Prep School Hero
Jean Tickell

André Lee ’89 always knew he wanted to make a film about his experience as a Community Scholar at GFS. By 2006, the independent filmmaker had secured funding and begun to create a sweeping survey of students of color at independent schools in America. But as the project evolved, it became a very personal autobiographical journey. Now he’s touring the country with his profoundly moving documentary…

Download the full article here.

TheGrio.com
May 17, 2010

André Robert Lee and “The Prep School Negro” are on TheGrio.com, an online news site by NBC News.

Click here to see full article and video.

Midday with Dan Rodricks on Baltimore’s WYPR 88.1FM
March 4, 2010

Listen to this interview with André Robert Lee on Midday with Dan Rodricks streaming on Baltimore’s public radio station WYPR 88.1FM. (Original airdate: March 3, 2010)

To listen to the broadcast, click here.

Review by Horace Mann School’s The Record
Februrary 4, 2010

January 15, 2010: Horace Mann School’s The Record reviews The Prep School Negro after a recent workshop conducted there by director André Robert Lee.

Download the full article here.

“Kids from the ‘Hood: Wendy Williams, Barack Obama, and The Prep School Negros”
January 29, 2010

December 21, 2009: Editorial in The Huffington Post, “The Prep School Negro is a testament to the kind of resilience and optimism universal to every child of every race.”

To read the full editorial, click here.

Columbia University Radio “Arts & Answers”
January 29, 2010

Interview with Director André Robert Lee about the process of making The Prep School Negro.

VentilationX Prep School Negro vCast
September 10, 2009

Director André Robert Lee explains how he arrived at the title of the film in this vCast. VentilationX is a media group composed of student film makers that André has been managing.

To watch the vCast, click here.

AOL Black Voices Interview
August 10, 2009

André Robert Lee interviewed on AOL Black Voices.

Talk Stoop: The Prep School Negro
July 30, 2009

WNBC’s “Talk Stoop” interview with André Robert Lee.

To watch the interview, click here.