Valentine Road

Marta Cunningham's riveting documentary investigates a 2008 school shooting: a one-on-one act of classroom violence in an Oxnard, CA, junior high school that defies easy stereotypes and simple finger-pointing. Larry King, an openly gay student, was fatally wounded in a computer lab by fellow student Brandon McInerney. Both came from dysfunctional family backgrounds—a series of foster homes for King, an environment of drugs and guns for McInerney. In the lawyerly gamesmanship prior to the jury trial, the notion is advanced (and supported by some schoolteachers) that the flamboyant King had no sense of boundaries and baited his killer with humiliating taunts and, most significantly, a Valentine's Day request in front of peers—leading to a trial defense that the accused suffered from "gay bullying." On the flip side, however, is the presence of Nazi material in the defendant's home, and a white supremacist presence in the community (King was of mixed race). While one teacher leaves her job in disgust, another is aghast at how quickly homosexual activists take advantage of the situation to march and emote on camera. Meanwhile, a grassroots movement urges mercy for the shooter. It's up to the viewer to decide whether this is a bigotry-ridden travesty, a system bogged down in “diversity,” or a town trying to show humanity and tolerance in regards to a crime that everyone agrees never should have happened. Including both the full-length version and a 52-minute abridged edition, this thought-provoking film is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)