Tonight, the Sundance Channel begins a five-part documentary series at 10 p.m. called "Brick City," about a year in the life of Newark, New Jersey, that will run all week.
If you don't have the Sundance Channel, find someone who does. It's worth it.
Shot during the second full year of Mayor Cory Booker's term in office, the series shows the energetic, young (40) mayor as he tries to pull the city out of its violent, poor and corrupt past with the help of community activists and, in particular, his police director Garry McCarthy. The city's homicidal history hit a horrible rock-bottom in 2007 with the execution-style murder of three promising college students on a school playground.
The film also focuses on two activists, Jayda and Creep. She's a Bloods gang member and he's a Crip and they're in love. Both have turned their lives around and counsel other youth. They're expecting a child.
But as the series shows, nothing is easy in Newark, not even a miraculous love. And definitely not in a city that's been on the decline since the riots of 1967. But man, Booker tries. I don't know what the people in Newark think but if there is a more committed mayor in America, please introduce me. The man tirelessly advocates for Newark. You get the sense that the city will rise through the power of his will.
I've seen this film compared to the acclaimed HBO series "The Wire," and I'd say it's a fair comparison. What makes "Brick City" more powerful is that it's not fiction. The stakes are much higher; the losses and triumphs cut much deeper.
The Sundance Channel cruelly sent me four of the five episodes. I'll be on the hunt to find episode five.
Assistant Features Editor Adrienne Johnson Martin would like to have her life turned into an animated cartoon. 
