Okay, we gotcha ya for April Fools Day, but this deeply felt recollection of Black adolescent life on Chicago's South Side in 1964 is now available on DVD. Like its white counterpart American Graffiti, Cooley High deals with girl angst, school drama, and police troubles as a group of high-school seniors prepare for post-high-school life.Directed by Michael Schultz, the cast of characters include Glynn Turman as "Preach," who loves to read poetry and history and wants to become a Hollywood screenwriter, but who has the worst grades in the school; and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Cochise, the high-school basketball star and suave lady-killer. Preach has to contend with love problems in the form of Brenda (Cynthia Davis), school problems with emphatic teacher Mr. Mason (Garrett Morris), and the law problems with street knuckleheads Stone (Shermann Smith) and Robert (Norman Gibson).
The classic comes complete with a collectible booklet containing trivia and production notes.