Short Term 12 (2008)

A day at a group home for troubled adolescents. Denim is the head counselor, involved somehow with Natalia, another counselor. During the day, we watch them and other staff deal with a boy ... See full summary »

Director:

Destin Cretton

Writer:

Destin Cretton

Stars:

Brad William Henke, Tania Verafield, Phoenix Henke

7 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Brad William Henke	...	Denim
Tania Verafield	...	Natalia
Phoenix Henke	...	Jayden
LaKeith Stanfield	...	Mark
James J Hansen	...	Sammy
Adam Shapiro	...	Scott
Katelin Chesna	...	Chelsea (as Katelin Chesna Henke)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Whitney Ball	...	Merrily
Andy Bonilla	...	Luis
Jared Callahan	...	Melvis
Joy Cretton	...	Sugiyo
Julianne Eggold	...	Intercom Voice
Alexis Faust	...	Rachel
Ryan Fernandez	...	Momo
Christian Gutierrez	...	Brook

Storyline

A day at a group home for troubled adolescents. Denim is the head counselor, involved somehow with Natalia, another counselor. During the day, we watch them and other staff deal with a boy who's getting into fights though he has only a week to go before his 18th birthday, a girl whose birthday it is, a foul-mouthed lad, and others. Denim uses music to calm one youth, orients a new staff member, sneaks a marijuana cigarette during a break, and by the day's end, talks to Natalia. Do any of us have it together?

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Plot Keywords:

birthday | counselor | group home | fight | adolescent | 

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Taglines:

A film about kids and the grown-ups who hit them.

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Genres:

Short | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 September 2008 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Flagpop

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

References Invisible Children (2006)

User Reviews

An excellent film that captures the reality of working with troubled adolescents

First of all, full disclosure, I have basically been the main character of this film. I worked for many years in group homes with troubled teens. I encountered all of the situations in this film and more. So, the only issues I have with the film are nit-picky ones. For instance, the summary describes this as a group home when it more accurately should be called a residential facility. Group homes are by nature a more "home-like" atmosphere and are not constructed with cinder blocks. Also, some of the posters and such would never be allowed to be displayed because of inappropriate content. And residents/clients/consumers (labels change depending on what is judged as politically correct) would never be allowed to have access to scissors unsupervised. Anyway, despite all that it is an accurate portrayal of what the day to day routine is like working in a group home or residential facility. In fact, it's very close to the movie I fantasized about making while working. People have a hard time understanding how you can be in a situation that goes from being spit upon to having an intimate emotional moment with that same person. It was a great short and I highly recommend it, especially to those who have worked with adolescents.