For several years now, Black Rock High School in Yucca Valley has been helping teenagers in trouble make it through school. Recently a film crew spent two years there documenting the process for the world to see. The result is “The Bad Kids,” a film that has been recognized globally and will soon be showing in the desert. Here with the details is reporter David Haldane…
It starts with a knock on the door. A San Bernardino County probation officer is checking on why a kid named Joey didn’t make it to school. “Sometimes I have trouble getting out of bed,” he explains. “I don’t get up until 1 p.m.”
That’s the opening scene of “The Bad Kids,” a 100-minute documentary about the Morongo Basin’s own Black Rock High School that’s been winning accolades worldwide. On Thursday, February 16, it finally screens within commuting distance: at the Camelot Theater in Palm Springs.
Two years in the making, the film depicts the day-to-day struggles of the students and staff at Black Rock, a Yucca Valley continuation high school designed to help 11th and 12th graders in trouble.
After winning at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, the movie opened in New York and Los Angeles and will soon be on Netflix and PBS.
Principal Vonda Viland, who plays prominently in the film, says it shows the so-called bad kids’ potential. “We have an untapped resource in our nation. If we would take the time and energy and the money to tap into them, we could solve a lot of society’s problems.”
Tickets for Thursday’s screening can be purchased for $7 to $11 at the Camelot Theater’s box office on the 2300 block of East Baristo Road in Palm Springs, or online at badkids.eventbrite.com. The show starts at 7:30 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session with the cast and crew.
BLACK ROCK HIGH SCHOOL DOCUMENTARY SCREENING IN PALM SPRINGS
