While every child will have their own unique educational experiences, anyone attending school at a similar time and place will have encountered a number of commonalities. There is always a really strict, scary teacher and conversely one who is far too nice and easily manipulated. Every schoolyard has their bullies and the geeks. The quiet kids and the annoying brats. All manner of cliques and unwritten hierarchies in any educational establishment.
Then there’s the new kid. The one who transfers in or randomly arrives to just study for a year. They can shake up the status quo. Be a catalyst for change. Bring groups together or tear them apart. In some instances, they can shake up the whole class. That was the case at Bearsden Academy in Glasgow during the mid-1990s. A new pupil arrived from Canada, Brandon Lee, but all was not as it seemed. My Old School recounts an almost incredible story.
My Old School tells a story where the truth is stranger than fiction. Director Jono McLeod, who was one of Lee’s peers, gets some of the old gang back together to add colour to his yarn. The ‘star’ didn’t want to be filmed, so Alan Cumming is drafted in (a perfect choice, as it turns out) to voice his words. My Old School is one of those rare jaw-dropping documentaries which is both highly entertaining and very funny.
My Old School opens in UK and Ireland cinemas on 19 August.
