
“The Students Provide a Heartfelt Example We Can All Follow” | Robert May, Bucks County, USA

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why?
When Jason Sosnoff, Barry Levinson, and I began the project and started filming in April 2022, our intention was to talk with and get to know adults on both sides of the political divide, to begin a journey—a respectful deep dive, if you will—to gain trust and present a sense of humanity by generously listening—a practice that we feel has been lost over the last number of years. In the process, we realized that the adults were fighting with each other in the name of their children’s education and that school boards had become their fighting ring.
We began to wonder what the kids—the students—who were at the center of the battle were thinking. What was their impression of the so-called adults in the room, who at times were acting like kids? So, in addition to talking with adults, we set off to talk with the students. We followed the same intentions as we had with the adults, seeking students on both sides of the political divide, and applied the same process of gaining trust and generous listening. The perspective and attitude of all the students we spoke with was remarkable; they did not present with rigid, immovable opinions but rather questions regarding how the community was acting toward them and others.
From there, we came up with the idea of creating a so-called roundtable with ten of the students we had been talking with—five from each side of the divide. And we invited two of the teachers that we had been following—again, one from each side of the divide—to moderate the discussion. Over the nearly 100 days of production, this one day with the students was certainly the most significant day. It became clear to all of us, producers and crew alike, that in the middle of the chaos, the students provide a heartfelt example we can all follow to regain our civility and sense of compassion. And as Evi and Vanessa say in the series, they’re the ones who will tell our story.
See all responses to our annual Sundance Question here.