"...We Wanted Our Cameras to Listen and Play Witness”: Emily Taguchi and Jake Lefferman on After Parkland

On Valentine’s Day 2018 the community of Parkland, Florida was irrevocably transported into the headlines. That was the day when a 19-year old gunman walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and took the lives of 17 of its students. In the aftermath of the horrific event news crews descended as grieving parents and children struggled to find footing in a new reality. And while a great many reporters packed up once the soundbites ran out, veteran journalists Emily Taguchi and Jake Lefferman stayed behind — and got to truly know the fathers and mothers and siblings, the significant others and best friends, and the survivors who lived to bear witness to a nightmare they still struggle to awake from.

Filmmaker caught up with Taguchi and Lefferman to discuss transforming these relationships delicately built into their feature documentary After Parkland, a tapestry of candid interviews and fly-on-the-wall footage (as well as harrowing cellphone video and frenzied media coverage) that gives us a genuine glimpse into life, as the title suggests, on the other side of a tragedy.

After Parkland launches nationwide with a series of “Day of Conversation” screenings on February 12th. (The film’s theatrical distributor Kino Lorber is partnering with Demand Film to allow communities to request screenings, and with Picture Motion, which does advocacy and marketing for social issues films.) The doc begins streaming on Hulu on February 19th.

To read my interview with the co-directors visit Filmmaker magazine.