BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — A Broken Arrow parent put together a documentary on Oklahoma's education system. Now "Brokelahoma" is getting national attention with a release on Amazon.
Filmmaker Titus Jackson tells 2 Works for You he started just by collecting interviews with teachers, but didn't think as far as a full documentary.
"The real realization hit me when I got off the bus at the capitol during the walkout. I was like "Oh my God, I'm in the middle of actually history here." I was like, 'Okay I think I have something to end the movie now... something that could last for a while and have cultural significance," Jackson said.
Before Jackson referred to himself as apathetic. Now, he calls himself an advocate for things like smaller class sizes for his three children.
"We felt so helpless, and it was very painful to see my daughter falling behind while she was in this class. The teacher couldn't do anything about it because she had so many kids in the classrom. There was nothing she could do about it. It was very painful as a parent to see that," he said.
While putting together Brokelahoma, Jackson encountered other families wanting to take a stand. Now people like JJ Burnam are part of Parent Legislative Action Committees, groups that are growing in popularity.
"This shouldn't be historic. This should be what we do. We should be paying our teachers competitve wages to keep them in our state and to keep them in our classrooms. That's what we should be doing all along," Burnam said.
The documentary is available on Amazon and Vimeo under the title Brokelahoma.
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