America to Me premieres tonight on Starz as 2018's best reviewed original TV show

August 26, 2018 4:49 pm

"Eye-opening... an invaluable look at where inequity begins, as well as the difficulty of getting to the place where it ends."
– James Poniewozik, The New York Times

"An urgent, inspiring and often heartbreaking look at teenagers who are playing for the highest of stakes."
– Scott Tobias, The Washington Post

The 10-part documentary series America to Me makes its television premiere on STARZ tonight, August 26 at 9pm CST/10pm EST. Episodes 1 and 2 are also available now on the Starz app.

#AmericatoMe is currently the best reviewed TV show debut of 2018, according to Metacritic.

Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Life Itself) examines racial, economic and class issues in contemporary American education in the multipart unscripted documentary series.

Poignant and funny, epic and intimate, America to Me spends an academic year at Chicagoland's elite Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF), allowing its students, families, faculty and administration to tell stories of the pressures and challemnges teens face today in their own words.

Steve James directed and executive produced the 10-part documentary series via his longtime production home, Kartemquin Films. The series is executive produced by Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll (Lincoln) and Diane Weyermann (An Inconvenient Truth), and by Gordon Quinn (The Trials of Muhammad Ali), Betsy Steinberg (Edith+Eddie) and Justine Nagan (Minding the Gap) for Kartemquin FIlms.

Bing Liu (Minding the Gap), Rebecca Parrish (Radical Grace) and Kevin Shaw (The Street Stops Here) served as segment directors. John Condne (Love. Blood. Kryptonite.) served as the series producer, along with Risé Sanders-Weir (Chicago Stories). Film editors were Leslie Simmer (Raising Bertie) and David E. Simpson (Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise).