The Education of Shelby Knox is a remarkable documentary, just as it appears that, Shelby Knox herself is a remarkable woman. The documentary itself focuses on the city of Lubbock, Texas, a high school sophomore named Shelby Knox, and the state of sexual education in Lubbock's public school system. Shelby joins the Lubbock Youth Commission, a group the city formed to give local youths a voice, and in doing so develops her own, which she still uses for feminist activist causes today. Shelby defines herself as a "good Southern-Baptist girl" and a "Democrat". In Lubbock, those terms should never be in the same sentence, so much of Shelby's journey, while becoming an activist, is about reconciling those ideas within herself. Once she has, it is the rest of the world's job to catch up. She tackles not only the president of the Lubbock Youth Commission to have her voice and ideas understood, but also her parents, peers, pastor, and community. She appears on radio and television shows and even marches around a church to support gay rights, her conservative mother beside her.This documentary, which is largely observational on the part of the filmmakers, opens up a discourse about sex, politics, societal rights, and social mores, not only for Shelby and her parents, but for all teenagers who want more from their education and thus more for their lives. Thank you, Shelby Knox for wanting more.

The film definitely takes the side of it's heroine, which is fine, since the documentary is really about her and her views of the issues, rather than the issues themselves. The camera work is truly exceptional, and some of the more candid shots arrive at particularly choice points in the narrative. A fine example of this would Ms. Knox's stand against the startling, and personal statement made by the super-intendant of the board of education toward her. Her defense, though is some how made a little less valid by the only flawed piece of editing (my opinion), in how the epilogue handles the man's guilt concerning an affair he had whilst on the job as a sort of 'told you so' moment. Over-all though a nicely handled documentary of an interesting true-life coming of age story.

Caught this inspiring and entertaining documentary at SXSW 2005 - it's a great film for teens and families to watch together.The film follows Shelby Knox, a Lubbock, TX teen, as she fights for sex education in her conservative school, and later for gay rights, while trying to stay true to her Christian beliefs and principles. Though far from a "warts-and-all" documentary, Shelby isn't always cast in a sympathetic light, and many of her peers do question her motivations and perceive her as a spotlight-grabber.What makes this film truly great is the interaction with Shelby and her conservative Christian parents - though they often disagree, their support for her and willingness to let her come to her own conclusions is truly inspiring and shows how important honest communication can be between parents and teenagers.I can certainly see why some reviewers here felt this film was anti-Christian and made a cartoon villain of the abstinence-preaching pastor. However, the pastor is actually given plenty of screen time and gives several convincing arguments on why "safe sex" can be truly unsafe, and the film doesn't try to disagree with him. In fact, the movie itself doesn't take a hard stance one way or another on the issue of sex ed, it simply follows the internal struggle within Shelby and what it takes to be a liberal Christian in today's world.Overall, this film was one of the favorites of many people I talked to at the SXSW Film Festival, and deservedly so.

Shelby Knox is a brilliant, strong, passionate, inspired, and determined young woman whose fight for truth, liberation and justice has become not only a huge part of her life, but an incredible accomplishment as well. I know this not only from the film, but because she is a personal friend of mine. The struggles and obstacles she has faced over the years were an immense amount to handle for a 15-year-old girl, but have made more of a difference than most people make in a lifetime. The film portrays her situation and strife with perfect accuracy, and I recommend this to anyone interested in watching a fight for what's right in action.