We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest

The good work done by the teachers featured and the enthusiasm showed by the students are the very heart of this film. As they prepare to present their orations for a competition we can see the learning happening and coming into their awareness in real time. Our children are the future.

"We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest" (2020 release; 58 min.) is a documentary about the 2019 edition of the annual oratorical fest around Martin Luther King Jr's legacy. As the movie opens, we see kids taking the stage, bringing inspirational quotes, original poems, tributes, etc. After that quick introduction, we step back and learn what the event, not in its 40th year, means for the 120 public schools in the Oakland school district, and how engaged the students become in the run-up to the oratorical fest. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from veteran documentararian Amy Schatz, who just last year brought us the excellent "In the Shadow of the Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11". Here Schatz lets us take a glimpse at the impact of the annual MLK oratorical fest has on the Oakland public school students. While the fest runs K through 12, the film mostly looks at kids ages 9-11, and none more so than 9 yr. old Gregory Payton, whose public speaking skills will blow you away, even at that young age. The film s mostly inspiring and I was awed with the efforts put in by these young kids all around. However, in full disclosure, there was one scene that I cannot understand. A teacher in Markham Elementary is prepping his class for the oratorical fest: "Who are we? we asks. "We are Black Panthers", the class answers in unison. "I can't hear ya, WHO ARE WE?" "WE ARE BLACK PANTHERS!" the class screams. "Show me some angry face!" the teacher instructs. Say what?!? I couldn't believe how this teacher is indoctrinating these young kids with Black Panthers stuff. Much better is the scene where the Superintendent of the Oakland School District sums up what this even is all about: "It's about the power of his (MLK's) words, but it's also the power of their (the kids') words."

"We Are the Dream" premiered last month on HBO during Black History Month, and I finally had a chance to catch it on HBO on Demand. If you have any interest in Martin Luther King Jr. or how kids in the Oakland School District are affected by him and inspired by his legacy (and then do some of their own inspiring of us, the viewers), I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

If you ever doubt we are moving forward you need only watch the young people in this film. They are passionate, articulate and wise beyond their years. If there is anything painful in this film, it's Seeing and understanding that from an early age children in Black, Brown, Latino and Asian communities experience their "difference." But by virtue of this amazing festival - shout out to the Producer Awele Makeba - they come to understand through their voices, they can effect change.