As of this year, no student—from kindergarten to collegiate seniors—will have lived without the fear of a school shooting. Columbine occurred in 1999 and while this was not the first shooting of its kind in the States, it has become a point of inflection for the past two decades of terror. Another school shooting, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, will in time perhaps become another turning point in America’s tumultuous history with gun violence: when the youth of the country stood up and shouted no more.
Us Kids follows a group of students from Parkland as they form the March for Our Lives movement, Never Again MSD organization, and implore other youth to join them to stand up against gun violence and get involved in political activism. The documentary is unflinching. It lets the survivors talk eloquently, passionately, ranting, sarcastically, stuttering, and most important authentically. Some of their statements may seem misguided, naïve, or hyperbolic, but they are honest.
The stories that resonate the strongest are not those the media has recycled endlessly. Rather than covering the somewhat stoic, but well-spoken David Hogg, passionate X Gonzales, or engaging Cameron Kasky, it is following activists like the awkward but openly honest Samantha Fuentes, who threw up during her speech at the March for Life rally because she was terrified of being shot right then and there, that resonates the most.
But that is also the documentary’s weakness. It touches upon stories that were overlooked, before reverting to the familiar. We get glimpses of Chicago-natives Alex King and D’Angelo McDade, whose lives have been defined by their city’s gun violence, along with Bria Smith, who asks where was this passion as children of color were being killed around her in Milwaukee.
The reason why I cried while watching this documentary was not because of the tragic tales or uplifting actions of the youth, but because so little has changed since Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Us Kids either has come out too late (partially due to COVID) to have an impact on the most recent, yet seemingly inevitable, uptick on gun violence or the documentary has come out too early, tracking stories in media res before many of these survivors will be able to vote, run for office, and make the changes that have failed to be addressed. Highly Recommended, Aud: I, J, H, C, P.