After Parkland

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Audience Member After Parkland (2019), directed by Jake Lefferman and Emily Taguchi, is a character driven documentary chronicling the impact, the trauma and the personal loss the Parkland shooting has had on its students and families. On February 14, 2018 a teen gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killing seventeen students and staff members, and injuring 17 in six minutes and twenty seconds. The film documents the narrative of the lives of two of the parents who lost their children in the shooting and several of the students who survived it juxtaposed against their backstory, the mourning process, and activism situating the incident within a larger context of gun violence incidents across the nation. Lefferman and Taguchi have woven together many visual elements to create a compelling and powerful documentary where the senseless slaughter of innocents meets heartbreak, pain and grief, and social activism. It is a well-crafted film which focuses on the personal narrative of the students and families devastated by the aftermath and not on the perpetrator or why guns are a divisive issue in America. The filmmakers weave first person interviews of the families and students juxtaposed against archival footage of the shooting incident, the aftermath, and the social activism that springs to action. The narrative of the film is structured between alternating scenes of the two fathers, Andrew Pollack, who lost his daughter Meadow Pollack, and Manual Oliver, who lost his son, Joaquim Oliver, and several of the students who survived the traumatic incident including Sam Zeif, David Hogg, Dillon McCooty, and Victoria Gonzales. The two fathers have a vastly different personal approach to dealing with the shooting incident as do the students which gives the film a depth and complexity as we all grieve and mourn differently. There are many powerful and emotionally moving scenes in the film, and one of the most powerful scenes in the documentary is the speech given by Emma Gonzalez at the March of Our Lives protest on March 24, 2018. After Parkland is a powerful film that documents the narrative of the families and students following the aftermath of the Parkland shooting whose collective experiences shine a light on the mourning process and how they have come to terms with that fateful day and how they turned their grief into positive action and outreach. The documentary has tremendous educational value and can serve as a vehicle to promote social change and understanding, and is deserving of your attention. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review dave d The heartbreaking days, weeks and months following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas are chronicled in 'After Parkland' and often frustratingly non-partisan documentary about the people who survived including parents, classmates, and siblings. The filmmakers even take a parent, that lost a daughter, who is trying to get MORE guns in schools, not less. I don't think you can talk about this issue without merging how to fix the problem. While there are many ideas, getting rid of high capacity magazines would be a start. Not mentioned. Instead we have a man who is trying to promote NRA talking points. Amazing how brainwashed some are. There are a diverse group interviewed and that makes the film seem like a both sides are even kind of thing. Despite a couple video clips of politicians, politics is virtually left off the table. It's like talking a cooking show without ingredients. That being said, the story is is necessary and is more than tragedy porn. If movies like this where in our face every day, perhaps we'd do something about the senseless violence that is ravaging our nation. Final Score: 6.8/10 Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member An extremely intimate and powerful delve into the aftermath of a mass shooting and how such seemingly random violence verily affects the lives of the victims and their families. Perhaps if we were to understand the harrowing consequences of violence we can get off our asses to actually do something to stop it. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Saw it at the TCFF this morning. Gave me a different viewpoint of the aftermath of school shootings. Each friend and family member affected was damaged in their own way. The courage and strength that came from each one of them to stand up and fight for a safer schools is heartbreaking and impossible to ignore. The film makers really got to know the families and were very sensitive in telling their stories. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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