Screening of ‘Selma’ held for DeKalb's Clinton Rosette Middle School students

DeKALB – Casey Yarak had heard mixed reviews about the recent Martin Luther King Jr. biopic “Selma.”

“I heard it was really good, but I also heard the guy who played Lyndon B. Johnson wasn’t that good,” said Yarak, an eighth-grader at Clinton Rosette Middle School in DeKalb.

Ezequiel Lopez, another Clinton Rosette eighth-grader, heard that the film depicting the King’s leadership of the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to secure voting rights “has some really violent scenes.”

On Tuesday, Lopez and Yarak were two of the 205 Clinton Rosette Middle School students who packed Carmike Market Square 10 theater in DeKalb for a private screening of the Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated film.

“I think it’s going to be accurate on what happened there,” Lopez said before the film.

The field trip was made possible through a GoFundMe campaign that raised $2,000 to cover bus transportation for the students from the middle school to the theater, and the cost of their movie tickets. The fundraiser reached its goal Saturday.

Since the field trip was planned well into the school year and not budgeted, eighth-grade Language Arts teacher Treveda Redmond established the fundraiser, the results of which “exceeded my expectations and inspired me all around,” Redmond said.

Clinton Rosette eighth-graders are hosting several activities and lessons related to Black History Month, and a trip to the movies to see “Selma” was the perfect tie-in, Redmond said.

“This trip was important to me, because instead of hearing about what happened from me, they’re getting a visual,” she said. “It’s important to support these types of films, but also see what people had to endure in those times.”

The show began at 9:45 a.m., before the theater opened to the public. For their breakfast, students formed long lines at the concession stand and hauled large buckets of popcorn and soda into the theater to hold them over for the two-hour movie.

“It’s early; I feel like we should be in school,” student Deoja Fort said while she waited in the concession line. “It feels weird.”

Although concessions weren’t covered by the money raised, students received discount popcorn and soda thanks to the theater’s Stimulus Tuesday deal.

“Selma” has generated a lot of buzz this awards season, already winning best original song at the Golden Globes and nominated for two Oscars, including best picture. The historical drama opened nationwide Jan. 9 after a brief run in limited release.

Carmike Market Square had already stopped playing the film to make room for other new releases, but brought the movie back Tuesday morning just for Clinton Rosette students, complex manager Phillip McDowell said.

“It’s great to be able to help out,” McDowell said. “It’s pretty great to be able to learn from movies.”

“Selma” is rated PG-13 and does contain some violence and racial epithets. Although all the eighth-graders were at least 13 years old, permission slips were sent home with the students to make sure no parents had objections.

None of the 205 students’ parents did, Redmond said.

“After the students see it, hopefully they’re able to treat their fellow peers with respect,” Redmond said, “and understand just because someone doesn’t look them them, it doesn’t make them a bad person.”

Student Wesley Jensen gave the film a positive review.

“It demonstrated what happened during the civil rights era,” Jensen said. “It helped me understand what we’re learning about it class.”