On the Monday after prom, a bit before graduation, getting to class is the last thing on the minds of high-school seniors from the small industrial city of Pahokee in Florida. Instead, they’re off on a 60-mile drive to have a celebratory day at the beach. In between selfies and shenanigans, they reflect on their diverging paths, including friendships, romances and plans for the future. With intimacy and ease, Skip Day moves among these young people on the cusp of enormous changes, eliciting the mixed emotions and uncertainties that so frequently accompany coming of age. A favourite on the film festival circuit in 2018, Skip Day won the Illy Prize for best short film at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, among other honours.
Along with The Rabbit Hunt, the short is part of a group of documentaries by the filmmakers chronicling the lives of teens in Pahokee.
Directors: Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan
Producer: Maida Lynn
Website: Otis Lucas
videoLife stages
Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers
15 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child
4 minutes
videoWar and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
videoTechnology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
videoSports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
The police camp where tween girls enter a sisterhood of law and order
28 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
Marmar is living through a devastating war – but she’d rather tell you about her new dress
8 minutes
videoMeaning and the good life
Wander through the English countryside with two teens trying to make sense of the world
10 minutes
videoEducation
Scenes from a school year paint a refreshingly nuanced portrait of rural America
25 minutes