“America to Me” sparks a national conversation

OPRF student Kendale McCoy

America to Me explores a national crisis, but that’s just the beginning. The ten-part docuseries, premiering August 26 on the Starz Network, is a call to action.

Covering a yearlong stretch in the lives of a dozen students from Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF), it begins with a montage in an educational institution that is recognized as one of the most progressive in the nation.

During the sequence, a handful of African American kids explain why they attended a Black Lives Matter forum that the school hosted exclusively for them, while a few uninvited whites say that they may have wanted to go.

Racial issues appear throughout the first two episodes — which Chicago-based production company Kartemquin Films screened for an audience at AMC River East on Tuesday night.

In one scene, an administrator declares that, “We are failing our kids every day.” In another, the narrator informs viewers that the school’s principal and dean refused to participate in the film.

 
AMERICA TO ME OFFICIAL TRAILER | STARZ DOCUSERIES

 

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Director Steve James, on hand for a Q&A after the Tuesday-night screening, said that part of his motivation for making the film was to “understand fundamentally how this community was failing.”

A long-time Oak Park resident and father of three OPRF graduates, he described his hometown as “this incredibly liberal community with an extremely well-funded public school system.” But he also recalled that, “the community, for literally decades, had been wringing its hands over the fact that it didn’t seem to be making a big difference in the inequities of achievement between white students and black students.”

After completing the series and admitting that, “I was remarkably ignorant,” he realized that his work had just begun.

“If things are going to change, white people across the board in many ways have to more than just think that it’s okay to not act in a racist way,” he said. “They actually have to actively do something.”

James was part of a panel on Tuesday night that included Jessica Stovall, a former OPRF teacher who factors strongly into the first two episodes of America To Me.

When filming began, Stovall had just returned from a year abroad conducting “really intensive research” into school systems that had overcome racial issues similar to the ones facing OPRF. But in a scene where she presents her findings to school administrators, the response is “crickets.”

“Some of my biggest support actually came from the film crew,” she told the audience on Tuesday night. “I put in three more years after filming and things continued to progressively get worse, which was what led to my decision to leave.”

Stovall is now pursuing a PhD in Education at Stanford University.

The situation borders on a crisis, no doubt. But Participant Media is working to alleviate the symptoms.

Participant, credited alongside Kartemquin as the production company for America to Me, helps create audience engagement through entertainment that brings social awareness. It has developed a campaign called “America to me: real talk” that will complement every episode of the series with a discussion guide for watch groups across the country. The company also plans to screen individual episodes and conduct follow-up discussions in ten cities across the nation, including a Chicago event on October 26.

After watching the first two episodes, however, it seems that finding a cure requires massive input from the students who are actually living through the dysfunction that has been thrust upon them.

Fortunately, the kids in America To Me are awesome. Charismatic, funny, and articulate, they work for academic success and plan for the future while remaining totally self-aware. They also take James and his crew everywhere, from classrooms and hallways to cheerleading and football practice and even into their own homes.

The resulting scenes of high school kids waking up at 5:30 in the morning to lose weight for the wrestling team or writing poetry to address highly personal issues are an immense dose of hope.

Along the way, the OPRF students offer and accept their own opinions about race without malice or resentment. They make all kinds of white-kids-do-this and black-kids-do-that observations that effectively enhance the discussion.

If these kids lead us into the future, we might just be okay after all.

CREDITS
Production Companies
   Participant Media
   Kartemquin Films

Other crew
   Max Asaf — for: Kartemquin Films
   Jack Bauhs — student filmmakers
   Meryam Bouadjemi — production support
   Brian Branand — student filmmakers
   Abbie Brasch — production support
   Jada Buford — student filmmakers
   Zach Cargie — student filmmakers
   Lourdes Contreras — student filmmakers
   Andrea De Fraga — finance officer for: Kartemquin Films
   Jay Faulkner — student filmmakers
   Michael Filek — student filmmakers
   Lauren Flowers — student filmmakers
   Blake Griffin — production support
   Derik S. Hines — production assistant / production support
   Tim Horsburgh — communications and distribution officer for: Kartemquin Films
   Marriah Kern — for: Kartemquin Films
   Joanna Lakatos — development officer for: Kartemquin Films
   Liam Loughran — student filmmakers
   Julia Martin — for: Kartemquin Films
   Nancy McDonald — for: Kartemquin Films
   Viorica Mereuta — for: Kartemquin Films
   Ashley Mills — production support
   Jim Morrisette — technical officer for: Kartemquin Films
   Suzanne Niemoth — for: Kartemquin Films
   Eileen O’Donnell — production support
   Toni Reed — production support
   Ingrid Roettgen — for: Kartemquin Films
   Rachel Rozycki — production support
   Simone Scott — student filmmakers
   Beckie Stocchetti — for: Kartemquin Films
   Anthony Stoll — for: Kartemquin Films
   Emily Strong — for: Kartemquin Films / production support
   Stephanie Sunata — production support
   Veronica Thomas — student filmmakers
   Pedro Urgiles — for: Kartemquin Films
   Mimi Wilcox — production support