Documentaries chronicling the lives of students as they prepare for momentous events may well be the trend of this burgeoning decade, and if that’s the case, I’m thrilled about it. It took me exactly 1.5 days to plow through the entirety of Cheer, but now that it’s done, I find myself needing another fix. This trailer for HBO’s forthcoming We Are The Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical gives me hope that I won’t have to wait long.
Here’s the description, per HBO:
Every year in Oakland, CA, hundreds of pre-K through 12th-grade students compete in the Martin Luther King Oratorical Festival, performing a mix of published and original poetry and speeches. This documentary chronicles the months leading up to the 40th annual festival, as schools across the city send their top-placing students to compete. It is a portrait of passionate young people raising their voices about issues they care about—social justice, immigration and more—and of a community that celebrates them.
Content-wise, We Are the Dream has nothing in common with Cheer, but as long as there’s nervous tension and stylized cinematography, I’m there. Besides, adorable children talking passionately about standing up against hate is going to be a soothing balm against an interminable election winter, and I don’t know about you, but my battered soul needs all the help it can get.