Growing up is hard, but when faced with the challenges of teenage pregnancy, homelessness, substance abuse, and more, it can feel nearly impossible. But at Black Rock Continuation High School in California, teenagers who face tremendous difficulties in their personal lives are given the space to thrive and the hope for a better future, and it’s all captured in the upcoming documentary “The Bad Kids.”
Directed by Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe (the duo behind “Lost In La Mancha”), their film, which won a Special Jury Award Winner for Vérité Filmmaking at Sundance, takes an observant look at the students at Black Rock and the guidance they receive from Principal Vonda Viland, who has an unflappable devotion to her students. Here’s the official synopsis:
Located in an impoverished Mojave Desert community, Black Rock Continuation High School is one of California’s alternative schools for students at risk of dropping out. Every student here has fallen so far behind in credits that they have no hope of earning a diploma at a traditional high school. Black Rock is their last chance. THE BAD KIDS is an observational documentary that chronicles one extraordinary principal’s mission to realize the potential of these students whom the system has deemed lost causes. Employing a verité approach during a year at the school, our film follows Principal Vonda Viland as she coaches three at-risk teens––a new father who can’t support his family, a young woman grappling with sexual abuse, and an angry young man from an unstable home––through the traumas and obstacles that rob them of their spirit and threaten their goal of a high school diploma.
“The Bad Kids” opens in theaters in LA on December 16th and NYC on December 23rd with rollout to select cities to follow.
