SHORT SYNOPSIS
Trouble Is My Business is the inspirational story of “Peachy”, an unconventional white teacher in a tough New Zealand school whose refusal to give up on any of his Pacific Island and Maori students, even the gang members and the habitual truants, helps them to turn their lives around.
SYNOPSIS
Trouble Is My Business is an observational documentary about an assistant principal who battles to keep his students in school and out of trouble. The film follows the stories of three Pacific Island and Maori students from a high school in the low socio-economic area of South Auckland as they struggle with the complex issues preventing them from getting an education.
Alicia is being bullied by a group of girls and starts skipping school; recent immigrant Mosese, struggling to adjust to the new culture, gets mixed up with drugs and a local Tongan gang; Jesse has issues at home and learning difficulties at school. All three students struggle to cope within a school system that doesn’t have the resources to support them and it’s heartbreaking to watch their lives going so completely wrong.
Assistant Principal Mr Peach is the back stop for kids with truancy and behavioural problems, when none of the other teachers can deal with them. In an environment where the morale of both the students and teachers is at an all time low, Mr Peach single handedly persists in his belief in the kids and their right to an education. He fights to keep the kids at school through a mixture of tough discipline, street knowledge, negotiation, support and encouragement–whatever it takes. He’s a rebel, and not everyone agrees with his approach; but through his dogged compassion and respect for the kids, Mr Peach instills a sense of self worth in his students and that changes many of their lives forever.
First time documentary director Juliette Veber spent a year at Auckland high school Aorere College capturing the trials, successes and failures of the students as they struggled to cope in the NZ school system. She filmed everyday for six months developing a remarkably close rapport with Mr Peach, the students and their families. The kids aren’t afraid of Juliette or her camera and they lay bare their lives for the film. Veber focuses her compassionate and unwavering gaze on charismatic Mr Peach and through him she provides a shocking, intense but often humorous insight into the lives of the students and the social, family and cultural challenges preventing them from getting successfully through high school and into some sort of future they can take a real pride in.