Sometimes the most exciting documentaries come together when they end up going off in a different and unexpected direction from what was originally planned. Homeroom seems as though it was envisioned as a slice-of-life documentary detailing the senior year experience of a group of students at Oakland High School, but after the (yes, we’re all tired of this word) unprecedented events of 2020, all of that is upended. This gives Homeroom a clearer sense of purpose and unquestionable relevance, even as the sudden shifting of gears makes the narrative feel unbalanced. On the whole, however, the power imbued in Homeroom by the former outweighs the issues introduced by the latter.
Oakland High School has its fair share of problems, but if you were to ask any of the rising seniors featured in Homeroom in September 2019, they would probably just tell you how excited they were for their last year of high school. Graduating represents a tremendous accomplishment, especially for the many students at Oakland High School who would be the first in their family to earn a high school diploma. There’s a sense of exhilaration as senior year begins, as we can see through Homeroom’s frequent use of the students’ social media feeds.
But all the same, some seniors are taking their commitment to the school more seriously than others. Denilson and Mika are both members of student leadership, a role that entitles them to a voice within the district’s school board, currently embroiled in negotiations surrounding a proposed string of budget cuts. In the eyes of the students, the clear solution is to eliminate the Oakland Unified School District’s police department, 67 officers specifically designated to patrol the halls of their high school. They have a multi-million dollar budget, and their presence on campus actively terrifies black and brown students.
The plea from the students, parents, and community is an emotional one and rooted in an empathetic logic. How can kids flourish in an environment where they feel threatened by the very people who are supposed to keep them safe? Their motion is denied, as you probably expected, and Denilson (who is unquestionably the star of the piece) delivers an impassioned response to the board with a withering resentment well beyond his years. But buckle up, kids, because we haven’t even gotten to 2020 yet.
Of course, COVID-19 changes everything. On March 14th, schools shut down indefinitely — we remember the date because it lingers on the whiteboard of an abandoned classroom for months, a banal yet chilling sight that feels like the opening of a zombie film. Kids who were already at risk of falling behind are now being asked to learn at home, where they may lack internet access, academic support, and domestic stability. But if COVID-19 challenged the senior class at Oakland High School, the Black Lives Matter protests of the late spring gave it new life.
The best part of Homeroom is watching these children face adversity head-on with strength and solidarity, protecting each other with both righteous anger and a sense of dignity. To see them overcome everything thrown at them and still have space in their hearts for laughter and joy and hope for the future gives Homeroom an unexpected triumph. It makes it difficult to regard their coming-of-age with anything but unabashed optimism. Yes, the fact that the world changed dramatically in the midst of senior year throws the narrative flow out of whack. It spends most of its screen time in the first half of the academic year, leaving little time for the catastrophic upheaval of spring 2020.
But considering the difficulties in getting Homeroom made at all, it seems churlish to judge it too harshly. Aside from the obvious issues of filmmaking during a pandemic, director Peter Nicks’ teenage daughter Karina tragically passed away just as the shooting began — the film is dedicated to her, and in small but meaningful ways, her presence seems to guide the production. And at the end of the day, none of Homeroom’s editing problems lessen the tremendous poignancy of its unexpected ode to teenage activism. Nicks may have been looking for a sweet coming-of-age documentary, but what he found was a crucible.
