Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story | |
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Genre | Biographical drama |
Written by |
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Directed by | Andy Wolk |
Starring |
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Music by | Bruce Leitl |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Cinematography | John Berrie |
Editor | Drake Silliman |
Running time | 120 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | Lifetime |
Release | August 22, 2005 |
Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story is a 2005 American biographical drama television film which tells the true story of a former parole officer named Marilyn Gambrell, who helped a group of students at M. B. Smiley High School in Houston, Texas. The students had either been raped, sexually harassed and/or beaten by their own parents. Marilyn helped the students learn to fight back for one another and for themselves. For this, she created the No More Victims program.
The film aired on Lifetime. It stars Jami Gertz, Ernie Hudson, Eugene Clark and Sicily Sewell.
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist and actor. He is a black belt in Tang Soo Do, Brazilian jiu jitsu and judo. After serving in the United States Air Force, Norris won many martial arts championships and later founded his own discipline, Chun Kuk Do. Shortly after, in Hollywood, Norris trained celebrities in martial arts. Norris went on to appear in a minor role in the spy film The Wrecking Crew (1968). Friend and fellow martial artist Bruce Lee invited him to play one of the main villains in The Way of the Dragon (1972). While Norris continued acting, friend and student Steve McQueen suggested he take it seriously. Norris took the starring role in the action film Breaker! Breaker! (1977), which turned a profit. His second lead, Good Guys Wear Black (1978), became a hit, and he soon became a popular action film star.
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Jami Beth Gertz is an American actress. Gertz is known for her early roles in the films Crossroads, Quicksilver, Less than Zero, The Lost Boys, and the 1980s TV series Square Pegs and 1996's Twister, as well as for her roles as Judy Miller in the CBS sitcom Still Standing and as Debbie Weaver in the ABC sitcom The Neighbors. Along with her husband, Tony Ressler, she is a part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association.
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The Boy in the Plastic Bubble is a 1976 American made for television drama film inspired by the lives of David Vetter and Ted DeVita, who lacked effective immune systems. It stars John Travolta, Glynnis O'Connor, Diana Hyland, Robert Reed, Ralph Bellamy and P.J. Soles. It was written by Douglas Day Stewart, produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, and directed by Randal Kleiser, who would work with Travolta again in the 1978 hit musical film adaptation of Grease shortly after. The original music score was composed by Mark Snow. The theme song "What Would They Say" was written and sung by Paul Williams. William Howard Taft High School was used for filming.
Marilyn Gambrell is a parole-officer-turned-teacher who started the program No More Victims at the M.B. Smiley High School in Houston, Texas. The program was developed to assist children with incarcerated parents, hoping to prevent them from following in their parents' footsteps. Since the program's start in 1993, hundreds of children have graduated under her tenure.
Alief Kerr High School is an Alief ISD public school located in the Alief community, and in the limited purpose city limits of Houston, Texas, United States. The school is a part of the Alief Independent School District and serves grades 9 through 12.
The East Los Angeles Walkouts or Chicano Blowouts were a series of 1968 protests by Chicano students against unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. The first walkout occurred on March 5, 1968. The students who organized and carried out the protests were primarily concerned with the quality of their education. This movement, which involved thousands of students in the Los Angeles area, was identified as "the first major mass protest against racism undertaken by Mexican-Americans in the history of the United States".
No More Victims, founded in 2002, is a 501(c)(3) program that works with the children of incarcerated parents in Houston. The program was founded by former parole officer, Marilyn Gambrell, and addresses the physical, emotional, academic and social needs and issues of teens through a facilitated peer-support program. The first classes were taught at M. B. Smiley High School in Houston, Texas. In 2005, the story became a made-for-TV movie called Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story starring Jami Gertz.
M.B. Smiley High School was a public secondary school in Houston, Texas, United States. Smiley, which served grades 9 through 12, and was a part of the North Forest Independent School District. M.B. Smiley was featured in the film Fighting the Odds: The Marilyn Gambrell Story, which aired on Lifetime. The campus is now used as the main campus for North Forest High School.
St. Stephen's Episcopal School is a private coeducational preparatory boarding and day school in Austin, Texas. Enrollment for the 2019-20 academic year is approximately 694, with 487 students in grades 9–12 and 207 in grades 6–8. Of the school's 694 students, 523 are day students and 171 are boarding students. The school's campus overlooks Lake Austin and is spread across 370 acres (1.5 km2) of the Texas Hill Country. The school is accredited by The Association of Boarding Schools, Independent Schools Association of the Southwest, the Southwestern Association of Independent Schools, the National Association of Episcopal Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools, National Association for College Admission Counseling, and the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools.
Eugene Clark is an American-Canadian character actor and former football player.
The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the TSHA moved its offices from Austin to the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. In 2015, the offices were relocated again to the University of Texas at Austin.
First Baptist Academy of Dallas is a private, Biblically integrated, college preparatory Christian school located in Dallas, Texas. First Baptist Academy opened for grades K-7 on September 5, 1972, previously in Downtown. It is now located at a new campus in East Dallas, at the current Saints Athletic Complex. FBA has been localized at the downtown location for 44 years.
The Islamic Education Institute of Texas (IEIT) is a network of Islamic schools in Greater Houston, Texas, United States. The organization is a subsidiary of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH). IEIT is headquartered in Southwest Management District in Houston.
Koni is a national award-winning Bengali movie released in 1984 directed by Saroj Dey, starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Sriparna Banerjee. This film is an adaptation of a Bengali novel by the same name written by Moti Nandi. The film's lead Sriparna Banerjee was also a professional swimmer herself in the 1970s and at the time of casting a student of Jadavpur University.
Gambrell is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
West of Texas is a 1943 American Western film written and directed by Oliver Drake. The film stars Dave O'Brien, James Newill, Guy Wilkerson, Frances Gladwin, Henry Hall and Marilyn Hare. The film was released on May 10, 1943, by Producers Releasing Corporation.
Jamey Gambrell was an American translator of Russian literature, and an expert in modern art. She was an editor with the Art in America magazine, and was a winner of the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.