Watch Friday, June 5, 2015 at 6pm on WORLD.
Low graduation rates and poverty dominate the story of New Mexico education. However, when examined through the lens of rural New Mexican students, a dynamic and more complex set of human narratives emerge – of deep family ties, perseverance, cultural traditions, bridging worlds, personal struggle and success.Our Time is Now, a character-driven coming-of-age documentary, shares the lives of six rural New Mexican students as they work toward finishing high school, wrestle with personal challenges, and straddle their hopes and dreams of childhood with the responsibilities of adulthood.
The protagonists of the film navigate the myriad of complexities facing rural teenagers today: Waylon is Navajo and lives without running water or electricity and helps provide the basic needs for his family; Jimmy faces the challenges of poverty and lives with a family torn apart by addiction; Juan balances his English speaking school and his Spanish speaking home; Mitch stays rooted in her Pueblo traditions as she works hard to be the school’s valedictorian; Vicky lost her mother and must hold down a fast food job to help support her family; Tiqua must separate from the stability of her fifth-generation farm family.
