A new documentary about gun violence in Akron premiered Thursday at the Akron Urban League. And its young filmmakers — ages 12 to 15 — were onsite to discuss how the movie came to be.
“It’s a really big problem, and it’s not gonna go away anytime, as long as there are guns,” said Allie Harmon, 12, one of the kids involved in the documentary. “Anyone can own a gun, and so much bad has come from it.”
“Talking Kids Off The Trigger” is a 30-minute “micro-documentary” created by Akron Kids Against Gun Violence. The group consists of five middle schoolers who met last year at a summer camp hosted by TomTod Ideas, a nonprofit organization serving youth in Akron and Canton.
At the camp, attendees were challenged to identify the biggest need in their community and to create ideas to help Akron thrive. The group of 50 campers, from grades six through eight, chose to focus on gun violence.
The topic was front of mind because the weekend before camp started, several young people were shot during a late-night party at Mason Community Learning Center in Akron’s Middlebury neighborhood.
“Because that shooting literally happened the week before camp started, like they were willing to talk about it, and then willing to say how they felt scared, confused, sad,” said Patrick Gerber, who oversees programming for TomTod Ideas.
Five of the campers decided to create a documentary about gun violence in Akron. They formed Akron Kids Against Gun Violence, and through TomTod Ideas’ after-school mentoring club, started working on the film last fall.
Three Akronites talk about the effects of gun violence in their lives
Kori Heller, 13, never thought she would help make a documentary, but she understood the importance of addressing gun violence prevention.
“It was important because, throughout the years, the gun violence problem became more and more worse,” Heller said. “With this new generation, everybody thinks that guns [are] a way to solve every single problem, and it’s just not.”
The majority of the documentary consists of interviews with three Akronites whose lives have been affected by gun violence. Tim Anderson Jr., founder of the Fallen Fathers Foundation, discussed his experiences with guns from a young age and how it eventually led to his own incarcerations.
Even today, the effects of gun violence are still prevalent in Anderson’s life. Through his foundation, he works with at-risk youth and their families by providing education, mentorship, mental health resources and workforce and housing support.
In the documentary, Anderson said a mentee of his was recently killed by gun violence.
“Sometimes I’m reluctant to share because it gets emotional, because every time you share your traumas, you’re reliving it,” Anderson said in a follow-up interview. “But just to see that you have middle schoolers that really get it and understand that this is an issue, and are willing to try to find solutions, I was all for that.”
For Courtney Brown, participating in the documentary allowed him to reflect on his own childhood experiences. Brown is the founder of Winners and Leaders, which offers programming and mentorship for youth and families. (Brown is also an Akron Documenter.)
“It took me back to when I was a kid, when I was first introduced to guns,” Brown said. “Taking me back to that allowed me to realize how much it is still an issue, a growing issue.”
Denico Buckley-Knight, youth opportunity strategist for the City of Akron, was also featured in the documentary. He would like to see more events like Thursday’s film screening happening across the city to address gun violence prevention.
“I would love to identify other spaces and places to bring community leaders together to have a similar format with a viewing of a film, and then having a Q&A just to kind of hear not just adults’ perspectives, but the young adults’ perspectives as well,” he said.
When Gerber introduced the documentary, he emphasized the film was not an answer to the problem of gun violence but a conversation starter. In terms of what comes next, both Brown and Anderson cited a need for more resources.
“I would like to see more funding for the organizations that are doing the work. A lot of us are doing this work off the seat of our pants. You have an opportunity to reach kids, but in order to sustain it, you have to be able to create physical change that they can see, and that costs money,” Anderson said.
“We have to figure out ways to help these families get in better situations.”
