The Pasadena International Film Festival opens Wednesday night, March 2, 2016, at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 with “Go Public: A Day in the Life of an American School District,” a 90-minute documentary produced by a Pasadena couple years ago about the Pasadena public school system, as the opening film.
“Go Public,” produced by James and Dawn O’Keeffe, tells the story of a wide-ranging group of individuals who participate, attend, support and work in the Pasadena Unified School District and in its 28 campuses.
In just one day, on May 8, 2012, 50 small camera teams followed each of these individuals and recorded their story and their own unique involvement in what makes a public school district function. Teachers, students, principals, parents and volunteers either tell their own story or are shown as they are immersed in the workings of the school district and of their individual schools.
Jessica Hardin, who actually started organizing the PIFF and is the Festival’s Executive Director, says the film provides a peek into the racially and economically diverse Pasadena area community as it interacts with the needs and the challenges, as well as the unique opportunities, within the public school system.
“Well it’s local and it’s about Pasadena, so it was a perfect match,” Hardin says. “They (the producers) really wanted to cite that stereotype with an actual like vision into a little peak into the world of the students and families that attend public schools.”
Since 2013, the film has been screened in various school venues, and this early part of the year, it has been scheduled for showing on PBS and at least three other venues before tonight’s screening as the opening film in the Film Festival.
Hardin shared an anonymous comment from someone who watched the film and was profoundly touched by the reality that it portrays.
“Drove 65 miles to Pasadena expecting a political message. Instead, I saw a human portrait of the good we do in public schools.”
Mary Trunk, who has been making experimental and documentary films for over twenty years, is Consulting Producer, together with husband Paul Sanchez, who has provided his artistic prowess in a number of top-rating films such as Michael Jackson’s “This is It,” and his camera operating talents to “Spider Man 3,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and “Walk the Line.”
“Go Public” starts showing at 4:00 p.m. at the PIFF. The Laemmle Playhouse 7 is at 673 E. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena.
For more of the Film Festival’s schedules and to get Festival passes, visit www.pasadenafilmfestival.org.
