Award winning documentary Us Kids is launching a multi-city drive-in screening series in partnership with March for Our Lives to mobilize youth civic engagement. The tour kicks of in Miami’s Wynwood District at Carpool Cinema on Tuesday, August 25 and will feature a live pre-screening conversation with Director Kim A. Snyder, film subjects and Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting survivors Samantha Fuentes and Alex Dworet, and special guests.
Sparked by the plague of gun violence ravaging their schools, Us Kids chronicles the March For Our Lives (MFOL) movement over the course of several years. The film follows youth activist Emma Gonzalez, MFOL co-founders, survivors and a group of teenage activists as they pull off the largest youth protest in American history and set out across the world to build an inclusive and unprecedented youth movement that addresses racial justice, a growing public health crisis and shocking a political system into change.
“With gun sales skyrocketing since the onset of COVID along with gun violence disproportionately affecting BIPOC communities, and suicide and domestic violence on the rise, the issue of gun violence cannot be siloed from what is happening in our streets. This screening tour is intended to stand in solidarity with the youth movement we’ve been working with these past years in creating the film to ensure the gun issue be a top priority as we head into this critical period, “ said filmmaker Kim A Snyder.
The film premiered in early 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival, followed by SXSW, Full Frame Festival where it won the Kathleen Edwards Bryan award for Human Rights, and Telluride Mountainfilm for Best Documentary. As it embarks on a nationwide, 9+ city drive-in screening tour, film subjects Samantha Fuentes and Alex Dworet, both surviving wounds by an AR15 in their classrooms and bonded by the loss of friend and brother Nick Dworet, will hit the road following the Miami kick-off to engage with youth across the state of Florida and beyond. Motivated by their experience and along-side March for Our Lives, Samantha and Alex will work to emphasize the importance of youth civic engagement as they visit various cities.
“I honestly don’t feel whole if I’m not doing something that makes up for the fact that I had people murdered in front of me,” says Samantha Fuentes.
The program will kick off August 25 and run through beginning of October.
Below is the list of current bookings and locations:
8/25 – Miami FL – Carpool Cinema Wynwood – Eventbrite for Tickets
8/27 – Atlanta GA – Plaza Drive-In
8/27 – Newport Film Festival drive in
8/31 – Raleigh NC – Raleigh Road Drive-In
9/10 – Philadelphia PA – PFS Drive
9/15 – Houston TX – Rooftop Film Club
9/17 – Phoenix – Digital Drive-In Mesa
9/23 – Detroit – Cinema Lamont
9/29 – Denver – Denver Film Society Red Rocks
10/3 – Milwaukee – MKE Film