After Seventh Grade: Clinton, 1996

After Seventh Grade: Clinton, 1996 is a feature documentary about memory, education, and the long shadow of childhood in a small American town.

In 1996, my family moved from Maryland to Clinton, Louisiana, where I started seventh grade at Clinton Middle School. Like many kids, I believed that school was the pathway forward. But nearly thirty years later, I began to wonder what actually happened to the people I grew up with.

Using a yearbook as a map, the film follows my return to Clinton to reconnect with former classmates, teachers, and community members whose lives unfolded in very different ways after seventh grade. Through these personal stories, the documentary explores how education, geography, race, and opportunity shape the paths available to young people growing up in rural America.

What begins as a search for my classmates becomes a deeper investigation into the forces that shape a town and the futures it makes possible. The film looks at the intersection of personal memory and public systems, asking how communities change over time and what happens when the promise of education collides with the realities facing rural schools today.

After Seventh Grade: Clinton, 1996 is both a personal journey and a broader reflection on opportunity in America. By returning to the people and place that shaped my adolescence, the film asks a simple but profound question: what happens to a class of students after seventh grade, and what does their story reveal about the country we live in?

Donations made through IDA's fiscal sponsorship program directly support the production of the film, including continued filming in Clinton, archival research, editing, and community engagement with the people whose stories are being documented.