Short Term 12

There were a few surprises at last night’s Academy Awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture going to the spectacular “Spotlight.” It was no surprise, however, that heavy favorite Brie Larson took Best Actress for “The Room.”

Earlier this summer, the producer of “Short Term 12” allowed members of The Imprint staff and fellows in our Journalism for Social Change program to review the film, which debuted in Los Angeles and New York last weekend and begins to open nationwide on August 30 (click here for showtimes).

By: Justin Pye Not many can relate to the anxiety hidden in the phrase in loco parentis. If the phrase were true to its reality it may read: in perpetual fear or in need of help.

It brought me back. From the yellow brick walls in the bedrooms, to the invasive room checks, and to the emotionally explosive community meeting, I was suddenly back in the Outer Richmond of San Francisco working in a residential living program with formerly homeless youth.

Short Term 12 had all the ingredients of a stereotypical movie about troubled youth. The young and slightly oddball staff cares for mostly minority teens in foster care who have experienced the worst that the world has to offer.

I have had very little experience with the Foster Care system in America and don’t really know a great deal about what living in a Foster Home would be like. The film “Short Term 12” provides a powerful and brutally honest introduction to something that I still cannot fully grasp, but would like to become more involved with.

Short Term 12 is a fictional film that offers the uninitiated viewer a portal into the days, months and years experienced by kids and workers involved in residential foster care. It is a world few people are even aware of and even less can understand.

In Short Term 12, the abused but irrepressible heroine Grace leads us into a typically hidden world: the foster care group home. In doing, she helps illustrate how steep the hill is that confronts youth in the child welfare system.

The other night, I found myself alone, sporadically wracked by tears, but feeling an intense sense of purpose. Three years earlier, I was handed a white DVD, imprinted with the words: “Short Term 12.”