Blue Baby

Blue Baby follows formerly incarcerated youth through a prison alternative known as Boys Town. The documentary introduces eight offenders, showing the personal and societal shortcomings that led to their incarceration and then their subsequent enrollment at Boys Town. It captures their experiences over four years as they struggle toward graduation and return to public life. 

The film is unafraid to confront the harsh realities and limitations of reformation. Not all stories have happy endings. But at the heart of the film is the remarkable legacy of Father Flanagan, the visionary founder of Boys Town who had one firm, impossibly optimistic belief: There are no bad boys. This simple belief allowed Flanagan to reconceptualize bad behavior. Instead of being caused by the intractable evil inherent in bad people, he believed it was actually just a skill deficit. 

Blue Baby explores how this guiding ethic has led to one of the most successful and innovative approaches to dealing with problem behavior. See a day-in-a-life of boys at Boys Town. They live in family units, do chores, attend high school, celebrate holidays, all while being taught critical social skills. And they are taught these skills everywhere, from everyone, all the time. Blue Baby paints a realistic picture of what reformation actually looks like and the ideals that propel it forward. It’s a story about the necessary clash between desire and reality, vision and outcome, intention and result.