Douglas plans documentary on march

PARKLAND — When kids from Stoneman Douglas marched on Saturday, they weren’t just protesting gun violence.

They recorded footage for a documentary that could end up in local theaters next year.

Broadcast journalism students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and their teacher, Eric Garner, were in the crowd filming the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C. Some of their classmates filmed the march in Parkland.

They’re received help from Ryan Blitzer, a 2013 Stoneman Douglas graduate from Dallas who joined the students in D.C. The freelance filmmaker also lined up crews to film the marches in Parkland and other cities across the country.

Blitzer, 23, plans to produce the documentary and have it ready for release by January, a herculean task considering such films typically take at least two years to make.

The school’s broadcast students will play a key role in the documentary, with a focus on how they will rebuild their community over the next six months.

“I want them to be a part of this, because it’s their story,” Blitzer said.

Garner taught Blitzer and now has rising stars such as David Hogg and Delaney Tarr in his class. He described their generation as a sleeping giant.

“They’ve been wanting to reach out, and now they have the passion,” Garner said. “It was always there, but this sparked them. And now they’re on fire.”

Blitzer, who produced the touching alumni video that premiered on Feb. 21 at CNN’s Town Hall in Sunrise, hopes to capture some of that fire in April with a visit to the school.

“The goal is to document the whole movement that is going on,” he said. “The march is just the start. If a distribution company picks it up, it could end up in your local theater.”

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