America ReFramed

Pahokee

By Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan

In this nuanced portrait of the town of Pahokee, four teenagers experience the joys and heartbreaks of high school. Located in the Florida Everglades, this tightly knit community struggles with financial insecurity and pin their hopes for the future on their graduating seniors. Everyone is involved, the teachers, the coaches, the churches and the families, in getting these seniors to graduation day and into college.

Na’Kerria is an enthusiastic cheerleader, whose dream since middle school was to become Miss PHS in her senior year of high school. She balances her extracurricular commitments with homework and a job at a fried fish restaurant. Jocabed, the youngest daughter of Mexican immigrants, is determined to graduate at the top of her class and earn enough scholarships so she can afford to attend her dream school, the University of Florida. Junior, the father of a one-year-old baby girl, struggles to balance schoolwork and leading the marching band drum line with the demands of parenthood. BJ is the football team co-captain who leads his teammates by example both on and off the field. The son of college-educated parents who met at an HBCU in Jacksonville, BJ and his family hope that his success on the football field will lead to offers to attend a NCAA Division 1 school. Economic, academic, familial and athletic pressures weigh on Na'Kerria, Jocabed, Junior, and BJ's  shoulders as they strive to achieve their dreams.

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