Sundance review: 'Us Kids' shows the personal side of the student activism after Parkland

‘Us Kids’

★★★1/2

Playing in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Running time: 98 minutes.

Screens again: Saturday, Feb. 1, 12:30 p.m., The Ray (Park City).

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Filmmaker Kim A. Snyder, our chronicler of the aftermaths of school shootings, asks an intriguing question in the fast-moving and thoughtful “Us Kids”: How does a revolution based on youth energy maintain itself when the youths get older and the cynical world moves on?

Snyder, whose “Newtown” (SFF ’16) encapsulated the unfathomable grief of parents whose young children were killed in the Sandy Hook shooting, this time profiles the students who survived the 2018 mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. And while grief and depression are important emotions for these kids, the overriding one is the anger that many of the survivors channeled into action.

Snyder compiles footage of some of the teens who became famous — like Emma Gonzalex, David Hogg and Cameron Kasky — for speaking out, then organizing the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., and other cities across America less than six weeks after the shooting. 

Those kids went even further, going on a nationwide tour to encourage young people to register to vote, and to vote against politicians in the thrall of National Rifle Association donations. (Utah viewers will note that the tour stopped in Salt Lake City, targeting Rep. Mia Love. — and that the youth vote in Utah went up 200 percent in 2018 compared to 2014.)

Snyder captures moments on the tour that might have gone unnoticed, like how Hogg and Gonzalez in some cities tried to engage with the pro-gun counter protesters who showed up at some stops. The film also talks to Kasky about the emotional strain that caused him to snap along the way.

Intercut with the tour, Snyder follows another Parkland survivor on a more solitary journey. Sam Fuentes was shot in both legs, and still has shrapnel scars on her face. She talks less about that than about watching a classmate, Nicholas Dworet, die in front of her.

Fuentes became instantly famous at the March for Our Lives (which happened on Dworet’s birthday, by the way), when she threw up in the middle of her speech. Snyder lets Fuentes explain why: She was terrified that she would be killed while standing on that stage.

“Us Kids” melds the personal with the political in the most moving ways possible. The juxtaposition of Fuentes’ story with that of the more famous Parkland kids, along with Kasky’s candid comments, are stirring reminder that there’s no rule book to trauma. Each survivor processes their grief their own way, whether it’s art or activism or smashing stuff. It’s up to us non-kids to listen.