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Since 1990, the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) has provided career opportunities in the restaurant industry to over 10,000 public high school students annually, providing teacher training, college advising, over $25 million in scholarships, and $2.5 million in supplies and equipment to classrooms. The program has touched many public schools in the Philadelphia area including Frankford High School, whose involvement is the subject of a new documentary, Pressure Cooker, premiering in New York City tomorrow, May 27. 

You may remember Pressure Cooker from its inclusion in the Philadelphia Cinefest this year, where it took home Best Documentary. It also received honors at festivals in Los Angeles, Portland, Aspen, and Woodstock. Directed by Mark Becker (Lost Boys of Sudan, Romantico) and Jennifer Grausman, daughter of C-CAP founder Richard Grausman, the film centers on the kitchen of culinary arts teacher Wilma Stephenson. There, she takes a Gordon-Ramsay-Hell’s-Kitcheny approach to getting her students out of their seemingly dead-end lives in Northeast Philly and on the way to a career in the restaurant industry.  The film focuses on three students, Erica, Dudley, and Fatoumata, as they attempt to overcome expectations and hold their own in Wilma’s kitchen. 

Pressure Cooker makes its Philadelphia premiere on June 12 at the Ritz at Bourse. Trailer after the jump!

 

Pressure Cooker opens in Philadelphia on June 12th, Ritz @ the Bourse, 215-440-1181. Info at www.landmarktheatres.com