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When students and teachers leave for school in the morning, they are not supposed to come home in a casket – but that is what happened to 17 people (plus many others injured) on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Broward County when a teenage gunman open-fired on students and faculty. How do we deal with the unfathomable, the senseless? The story of how the student survivors of this horrific event channeled their grief into activism for gun control is chronicled in filmmaker Kim Snyder’s Us Kids, a cathartic laudation of human fragility and resilience.
Just four days after the shooting, students announced plans for a march on Washington to demand gun control reform – and students across the world created sibling events that culminated in 1.2 million people forming what became known as March for Our Lives. After the march, student leaders continue to confront political leaders across America who have failed to protect them. Fueled forward by the shocking horror of what happened to their friends, classmates and themselves, the students have no time for inhibition or negotiation. You haven’t seen bravery like that of a vulnerable 17-year-old confronting a US senator on live national television at a CNN Town Hall – as occurred on February 22, just eight days after the massacre at his school.
In our polarized nation of extremes, the March for Our Lives students are sadly subjected to the indignity of vilification from right-wing extremists, but even that does not break their resolve. Emotional exhaustion is held at bay, until others come to carry the torch. THIS IS ESSENTIAL, ESSENTIAL VIEWING.
The film will be accompanied by a Live Q&A with Director Kim Snyder, moderated by Miami Film Festival's Jaie Laplante, Saturday October 10th at 6pm EST!
This screening is sponsored by Only in Florida.
