© Otis Lucas
Directed by: Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas
Featuring: Na’Kerria Nelson, Jocabed Martinez, Junior Walker, B.J. Crawford
Hope can be a powerful tool in any situation.
Especially now.
More succinctly is the hope that you have when you’re in your final year of high school. Hope that a future exists beyond the town you grew up in. Hope that you will go to college, get a degree and make something of your life.
For the students featured in “Pahokee,” a documentary about the last year of four different high school seniors as they go through the last vestiges of their final year, and apply to college, there is also worry and concern.
For Na’Kerria Nelson, the hope is that she will go to a good school and graduate with a master’s degree in education, to help foster the education of those who are less fortunate. For Jocabed Martinez, her hope is that she will be able to get a better education to support her parents and the sacrifices they have made. For Junior Walker, his hope is to give his young daughter a better life, and for B.J. Crawford, one of Pahokee High School’s football team members, the hope is to get into a solid college football program.
Patrick Bresnan and Ivete Lucas followed these students around for their 2016 – 2017 senior year as they navigate student council, academia, proms, awards and a championship football season. Pahokee is an agricultural town on the southeastern shores of Lake Okeechobee with a population of 6000. The documentary makes clear early on that the town’s hopes and support are pinned to a strong football season. Though the pressure on these young athletes is not as apparent, a sense of gamesmanship and competitiveness is rampant as the team successfully achieves an undefeated season and goes on to beat each opponent winning the State Championship.
Embedded within the town’s hopes are each of our subjects’ lives, their fears, their hopes, their dreams. Na’Kerria Nelson is a well-rounded individual with strong academic marks and a sense of giving back to her community. Early in the documentary, she is faced with a campaign issue in her bid to represent the school. She is forthright and honest in her dealings with her peers.
The documentary does not explore Junior Walker’s history. It is focused on his present. There is deep love and commitment to his child, who runs around on camera like a ballerina. He is a drum major in the school’s drum band. We see his dedication to his practice, but it is not enough for him; he wants more. He learns the hard way that he needs to take steps to earn his place in the world and with that a better life for his daughter. Bresnan and Lucas do not paint a picture of sympathy for Junior; his dedication will carry him far, even if his current lot in life is not where he would like to be. They do paint a picture of empathy for his daughter, through his own sacrifice and hope.
The hope for B.J. is found in his family network, a strong showing of love and truth. Though he wants to play football in college, his father really wants him to have a back-up plan. B.J. is as much an athlete as he is a student, and for a high school in a small farming community, that theme resonates throughout the documentary. B.J. does select a school with a program that he can focus on.
These kids are acutely aware of their surroundings.
Within this though is a misstep which costs the football team its hard-won championship. The school fights on their behalf for a “simple data entry error.” Even without sports though, these kids have a bright future.
Especially Jocabed Martinez. Her parents immigrated from Mexico when she was three years old. Her father worked in the fields, eventually opening a taco stand, which is a success. For Jocabed, she does not want to leave her parents’ hard work in vein. Family is particularly important to the Martinez’s and there is a sense of self-doubt buried deep within Jocabed. She knows she can accomplish whatever she sets her mind to, but she does not think she’s good enough, and is in absolute shock when she gets accepted into the university she applied to. Her hard work, her dedication and her love for her family all contribute to the dynamic student we see in the documentary.
In a way, when the graduation ceremony is featured toward the end of the documentary, “Pomp and Circumstance” felt very much at home: the common theme in “Pahokee” is the perseverance in wanting to better their situation. No one is unhappy; hope is pinned on smaller events and all throughout, for every circumstance, there is a pomp waiting.
“Pahokee” earns its pomp and circumstance by building up the hope for a better future. And for this rural community, it achieves that hope.
