The Dead Kid

Gregory D. Goyins and his team created a short film that will touch your heart and awaken your soul. This period piece delivers a timeless message about bullying, racism and peer pressure that everyone can relate to.

I especially liked the narration of the older Annie Baxter looking back on her life and the valuable lessons that she has learned. The cinematography is just beautiful and the child actors did an amazing job. I loved everything about Mr. Dunbar and he eventually moved me to tears.

This is a short that I could see being made into a feature film in the near future as all of the characters have such an amazing amount of potential.

Filmmaker Gergory Goyins reminds us what it's like to be at the difficult and transitional age of late childhood in his film The Dead Kid. Annie Baxter lives a normal life. She plays with her friends, camps outside at night, explores her hometown, and she starts noticing boys, hoping they notice her too. Her innocent desire for one boy's attention allows her to look the other away as her crush bullies another child. After the bullied child goes missing, Annie is burdened by her lack of action to defend the boy. Goyins wonderfully illustrates the fear and guilt weighing us down from little mistakes we make for the sake of acceptance by our peers. Most importantly though, the film reminds us to forgive ourselves for these little mistakes. In only 27 minutes, Goyins tells a small story with a big and long lasting emotional impact. This film deserves to be seen and heard.

The Dead Kid is a wonderful half hour short that touches on the topics of bullying, racism and peer pressure without being heavy handed on any of the issues. Rather, the director/writer Goyins weaves elements of these social issues into the fabric of a place in time that we can all relate to.

The bullied kid in the piece is a target for many reasons, reasons that we can all remember when thinking back to our school aged years, and reasons that kids can still relate to today. The story further delves into a surprising direction when the bullied kid goes missing, and it takes us into all too familiar territory where peer pressure and the need to be liked play significant roles in the choices we make at a young age.

I would recommend this short for viewing by any middle school anti-bullying organization.

THE DEAD KID deals with the conflicts of childhood's mistakes. The protagonist knows she is complicit to wrongdoing even though she didn't do wrong, and she confesses her feelings of guilt in this touching, smart and wise little film. Deftly written with a realistic yet poetic tone, THE DEAD KID is directed with dark and vital imagery,illuminating a story that could have happened to anybody. The story deals with bullying--the kid who is innocent, bullied, yet takes it and perhaps expects it. Two girls observe the acts but do nothing to stop them, and one of them suffers for realizing that.

Watching THE DEAD KID reminds the viewer of those many omissions and slight transgressions of childhood and youth we were never punished for, except in our own hearts. Very touching, very well done. It is a remembrance and an apology for all of us.

And so it is. After much promise--flashes of intelligence, isolated moments of brilliance--Goyins puts it all together in what is certainly his most mature film. Set in the early '80s, The Dead Kid relates the tragic story of an adolescent boy's disappearance in a small coastal town. It is told through the eyes of a same-aged girl (Mandalynn Carlson) whose growing awareness of the surrounding incidents (the boy was bullied by locals) provides a sturdy, empathetic core. Unabashedly literary (based on a short story by Gillian King, who shares screenplay credit), the film effortlessly moves through a nonlinear narrative space, interweaving first person narration with observational storytelling to create a dense, emotionally rich texture. The cinematography has a warm, glowing, nostalgic sheen, and every production detail is calibrated for maximum emotional effect. There are numerous felicitous touches (such as the "Greek chorus" of kids that ease the transitions between scenes) but the biggest revelation, at least to this viewer, is that Goyins proves himself, after the old soul world-weariness of After the Denim and the shocking body horror of Vitriolage, a sensitive director of children. But to say so doesn't convey the full effect of watching The Dead Kid. It has to be seen to be believed. Goyins and his team of collaborators have made a small classic that speaks to specific social issues (race, class, bullying, etc.) without neglecting the all important human element. In short, it is a major accomplishment.