Do kids have a basic right to learn about their own bodies and sexuality? A local backlash to sex ed sparks a national firestorm.
SYNOPSIS
When New Jersey schools unveil a new comprehensive sex education curriculum, the parental backlash is explosive. Amid the chaos, we follow three teen leaders on a mission to preserve what they believe is a fundamental right of young people: access to information about their own bodies, gender identity and sexuality.
Mehr fights to bring conversations about consent into classrooms, convinced that silence breeds harm. Max, a trans senior in a conservative town, becomes an unwitting lightning rod in his conservative town. Louie, an openly gay teen, volunteers as a peer sex educator helping teens expand their understanding of sexuality to create a safe environment free of the bullying he endured.
On the other side of the political spectrum, we follow two New Jersey moms spearheading the movement against sex ed. At the heart of their movement is fear – fear that their child’s exposure to sexual and gender information in school will be traumatic or harmful.
As parental concerns intensify, we see the consequences play out in real time: Mehr challenges her school to revamp their outdated curriculum, and channels her knowledge into action as a sexual assault hotline responder. Louie speaks out publicly, facing the growing parental opposition head-on. And Max embarks on a journey to defend trans kids in schools, in honor of his close friend who tragically committed suicide. Meanwhile, the parental rights group grows, taking over school boards and targeting opponents online.
Interwoven through these stories is a big picture viewpoint including animation, archival footage and expert voices that reveals how sex education has long reflected society’s fears.
As the story unfolds, we witness young people creating new ways to access the information they need, even when it is withheld.
With both humor and heartfelt honesty, this film reveals the next generation’s fight to end shame and stigma, and make information available to all.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Co-Director/Producer/Cinematographer Julie Bridgham
Julie Bridgham is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and Sundance and IFP Documentary Fellow. She directed and produced THE SARI SOLDIERS which garnered multiple awards and screened in over 50 countries, and served as Executive Producer of DRAWING THE TIGER (Hot Docs) and produced for I AM GRETA (Venice Film Festival, Hulu). She has directed and produced for BBC, CBS, Discovery Channel, TLC, and Hulu, and directed programs for Meta, WhatsApp, NowThis, and global NGOs. A former Documentary Feature Programmer for the Brooklyn Film Festival, she currently teaches the Master Class in Documentary at NYU Tisch.
Co-Director/Producer Rebecca Haimowitz
Rebecca Haimowitz is an award-winning filmmaker and an Assistant Arts Professor of Film at NYU Tisch. Her documentary 62 DAYS broadcast on PBS/World Channel’s “Reel South,” after premiering at the Meet the Press Film Festival with AFI. She is the Co-Director/Producer of the feature film MADE IN INDIA, which premiered at Hot Docs International Film Festival, won “Best Documentary” at numerous festivals, and aired on PBS in 2012. Her fiction work has screened at SXSW, Woodstock Film Festival and more. Rebecca has received support from Fork Films, IFP, the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, Chicken & Egg Pictures, the Fledgling Fund, the New York State Council on the Arts, and more. She is committed to creating powerful films that reveal the deeper stories behind timely issues.
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