Director Peter Nicks has spent more than a decade chronicling life in Oakland, CA by artfully immersing audiences in both the mundane and dramatic. By setting the stage within this diverse city’s public institutions, his grand narrative has revealed deep insights into the complex relationship between community and institutions over some of the most consequential chapters of recent American history from battles over health care reform and police accountability to the emergence of a global pandemic. The third and most personal in a trilogy of vérité portraits [The Waiting Room (2012), The Force (2017)], Homeroom follows a group of high school seniors in the tumultuous school year ending in Spring 2020. As Nicks has shown again and again, Oakland is a rich microcosm of American Life and Oakland High is no exception. The joys and sorrows of teenage life are on full display, as students struggle to define themselves and set a course for the future.
However, many of the students face hardships far beyond the pop ennui of so many high school films. Displaced by rapid gentrification in the Bay Area, constricted by fear of deportation, and intimidated by law enforcement, they have a firsthand education in systemic injustice. At centerstage is Denilson Garibo, one of two Student Directors on the Board of Education representing the 36,000 students in the Oakland Unified School District. Denilson’s role places him between two worlds, bringing the urgent concerns of his constituents to the ears of adults in leadership positions who are often pursuing different priorities.
In a year derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic and rocked by the national trauma of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, Homeroom celebrates the tenacity of today’s youth. A perfect capstone to a trilogy of films that have not shied away from exploring the intractable problems plaguing many of our institutions, Homeroom allows the students to point a way forward. Confronted with crisis after crisis and coming of age in a chaotic world has not instilled pessimism, but a galvanizing determination to make change.
‘Homeroom’ Review: Salutations for the Class of 2022
‘Homeroom’ Examines a Tumultuous, Unpredictable Senior Year
‘Homeroom’ Review: Doc Embeds Itself in Bay Area High School During Exceptional Year
‘Homeroom’: Film Review | Sundance 2021
‘Homeroom’ Review: Peter Nicks’ Trilogy on Oakland Institutions Ends on a Personal Note
‘Homeroom’ Review: Documentary Chronicles a Turbulent Year in the Lives of High Schoolers
Sundance Review: The kids are more than alright in Peter Nicks’ brilliant ‘Homeroom’
