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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
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Valentine Road: One Boy Murdered, Another on Trial “Valentine Road” is actress Marta Cunningham’s first feature film as director. She tells the story of the 2008 murder of an eighth grade student by another student at the school, in the classroom. The crime received national attention.
The victim was a biological male who self-identified as female, and who found himself in the unusual position of having formal permission to present himself culturally as a woman in dress and makeup at school. The killer was just a few days past 14 in age, and was tried as an adult.
Although there are a dizzying number of aspects to this murder and the social and legal response to it, the film’s focus is on the subject of our response to sexual orientation and gender identity. The film includes a clip of Ellen DeGeneres tearfully addressing her television audience. The song heard as the credits roll is about tolerance and respect.
This is not to say that Cunningham overlooks the many other aspects. She describes the heartbreaking childhoods of both victim and perpetrator—drugs, alcohol, crime, neglect, guns, abuse and failed safety nets played a part in their upbringing. She covers the opposing attorneys’ views of the case, the issue of trying children as adults, the impact the murder had on the school, community, family and friends, the less-than-graceful reactions of the school’s leadership in its immediate and subsequent response to the tragedy.
“Valentine Road” debuted on October 7, 2013, on HBO. See the film’s website—link above—to find it from other sources.