I saw this HBO movie years ago as extra credit for a college class, and it’s always stuck with me. I really enjoyed revisiting this very interesting story recently.
In 1968, East LA high school student Paula Crisostomo has her eyes opened to activism during a youth leadership retreat. She and a number of her friends get involved in a student organizing movement to demand more resources and better treatment at school for them and their mosty-Chicano classmates. When the administration won’t take them seriously, they help organize a series of walkouts across five East LA schools.
Every time I watch a historical film like this, I’m struck by the similarities across movements. You could compare Walkout to Crip Camp, because bringing together Chicano students from across Los Angeles and exposing them to the leadership of passionate Chicano adults helped them realize they could organize and demand better for themselves. You could compare it to On the Basis of Sex, because the incredibly-basic ask of equitable treatment is viewed by the higher-ups as something dangerous, pernicious, threatening. You could compare it to Selma, because the police quickly prove that they can respond with violence to the most peaceful of protests, even against minors. Additionally, Paula’s reaction to seeing the exquisite library in a well-to-do white school, compared to her own school’s ancient textbooks, made me think of scenes from Queen of Katwe.
But each of these stories also have their own particular details that are unique to them. The treatment of the students in the East LA schools is just deplorable. Students are mocked, berated, and physically punished for speaking Spanish in front of their mostly-white teachers – when one student provides a quick translation for another during English class, helping his classmate understand and thus learn, both of them are paddled in front of the whole class. Janitorial duty is used as another form of punishment, with teachers “supervising” and taunting student janitors, goading them into further outbursts. Students are punished for peeing in the bushes during lunch, even though the bathrooms are physically locked and students barred from entry. After the first walkout, the school padlocks the outer doors, giving the students nowhere to run when the police show up to beat them with nightsticks.
That’s what the students are fighting against, and they rise to the occasion with intelligence, determination, and collaboration. I like the scenes of the student organizing group, the way they don’t always agree over the best course of action and debate strategy amongst themselves. I like seeing their plans evolve in response to the pushback they receive, becoming bolder and stronger as they go on. And honestly, I love this depiction of brown inner-city kids fighting so hard for their education. Their schools have basically done as much as possible to disincentivize these kids’ desire to learn/dream/aspire, but Paula and the activists encourage their classmates not to surrender their education to people who don’t care about their futures.
As Paula, Alexa Vega leads the film with spirit and aplomb. I really like that she’s a smart, driven, college-bound girl who will likely succeed despite the disadvantages of her schooling, but she’s not content to rise above her environment and leave her friends behind – she wants all of them to have the tools they need to make goals and achieve them. Until I rewatched the film, I hadn’t realized that Michael Peña plays Sal, one of the few Chicano teachers at the school and an instrumental figure in encouraging the students in their efforts. Peña offers a grounding presence as Sal navigates the delicate task of supporting the kids without directing or steering them.
Warnings
Violence (including police brutality against minors,) language, and strong thematic elements.
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Another new Tony Leung Chiu-wai print interview, this time with TIME. (These don’t come along very often, so we have to appreciate them when they do!) Mostly the same sort of things he’s been saying in other press he’s done for Shang-Chi, but I love the detail that he suggested Wenwu use more of an MMA style of fighting, noting that someone who’s lived so long wouldn’t use just a single style of martial arts. I also like his outlook that every new film he does is a chance to be better than before.
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