In this modern glut of round-the-clock lousy news, it’s easy to ensconce oneself in a false layer of unflappability. If you’ve heard/read/watched one report of murder/rape/brutality, you’ve heard/read/watched them all. We lose track of what marginalized people have been targeted in what country; what seemingly innocuous product or person is actually, in fact, very dangerous; which public venue gave way to carnage this week. “After Parkland,” a documentary by Emily Taguchi and Jake Lefferman, which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, aims to cut through the numbness.
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Taguchi and Lefferman, producers for ABC News, have compiled footage from the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, when a gunman killed 17 people and injured 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day, 2018. The incident shook the town of Parkland, Florida — a community whose reverberations were heard worldwide after many surviving students organized gun control demonstrations like the Enough! National School Walkout and the March for Our Lives. These students, from basketball player Sam Zeis to grieving girlfriend Tori Gonzalez to precocious media maven David Hogg, all seem to have internalized one of MSDHS’s slogans: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” But those protests are just touchstones in these kids’ journeys from massacre to matriculation, and “After Parkland” aims to capture their more human moments, as well. What did they eat for breakfast in the morning? What did they do for prom?
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You will find yourself sobbing through many of the scenes that answer those questions. These kids’ achingly human experiences unfold within exceptional circumstances, and the documentary team captures everything. It’s clear that the filmmakers formed intimate, important relationships with these kids and parents when, in one student’s final scene before leaving for college, he removes his mic and hugs all the film crew. “After Parkland” depicts events, interviews, and footage you can find anywhere, but this level of emotional access truly sets it apart.
If you’re looking for a politically cathartic documentary, however, “After Parkland” is not necessarily it. Rather than taking a stand for or against gun control, the film observes the Parkland survivors with a fairly bipartisan eye, chronicling both teenage radicalization and the conservative, anti-gun control efforts of grieving father, Andrew Pollack. As a result, it occasionally feels like some fascinating questions are not being asked. For instance, in one scene teen activist David Hogg fires off a Trump-critical rejoinder with whiplash-inducing speed, but the documentarians never ask how he felt when conspiracy theorists singled him out as a supposed crisis actor.
In the wake of a tragedy as massive as Parkland, it must be hard to decide how to conduct a feature reporting project of any magnitude. Viewers might not agree with the particular balance of personal and political struck in “After Parkland,” but hopefully we can all agree on one thing: You should bring tissues. [A-]
Follow along with all our coverage from the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival here.