MTV

Directed, produced and edited by a pair of filmmakers, Rebecca Rivas and Daniel Huck, the documentary “Knock, Knock America” does something that few films do: it shines a light on young people that don’t normally enjoy a lot of attention in the media.

All of the young people in “Knock, Knock” are international, though their stories vary from there: one’s a teenaged girl from Afghanistan, with a sometimes smart mouth and a desire to either teach or join the US Army; another’s a young African woman, who drops out of the storyline after becoming pregnant, while finding a bit of strange satisfaction in the process.

What brought them together was a program called the International Play Ground, in which acting teacher Magan Wiles and music director Mark Pagano attempt to help the teens shape an original production called “Big Tree.” A lot of the inherent power of the film comes from the scenes in which the group actually clicks: actors improve their delivery of lines, they learn to express themselves with more energy, they simply learn to share the stage and spotlight. What brought them together was a program called the International Play Ground, in which acting teacher Magan Wiles and music director Mark Pagano attempt to help the teens shape an original production called “Big Tree.

Pagano says the students weren’t shy about a camera following their progress, aided by adeft touch from Rivas.

“Rebecca’s really good about being invisible,” he says of his friend and roommate. “She’s small, she’s female, she’s personable. I was really surprised with how much more focused they were when the camera was around. A lot of times, they took it more seriously when the camera was there. They really wanted to show what they could offer.”

The production that they worked on “Big Tree,” reflected the next IPG project, “Everyday Oppression,” which Pagano says “was a lot more explicit about racial issues and daily experiences.”

In the past, Rivas has worked on projects like “At Highest Risk,” a film about women’s health issues in Peru, so she’s not one to shy frompolitically-tinged work.

In fact, “Knock, Knock America” takes a decidedly sharp turn about 45-minutes into the film, when she introduces the fact that one of the key players in the movie, a Liberian immigrant named Junior Harry, had been arrested for statutory rape. Advocates for Harry say that he was with his partner, and the mother of his child, in Liberia, as a family unit. And that the pair were living under a different set of cultural mores, which wouldn’t preclude a family coming together at an age unacceptable in the US.

To date, that story continues to wind its way through the courts, with Rivas advocating Harry’s case through solicitation of news stories and informational protests timed to his trials.

Even before Harry’s story changes the film’s focus, “Knock, Knock” is a definite reminder that refugees and immigrants – in this case in ethnically-mixed South St. Louis neighborhoods – have all types of stories that aren’t usually given a hearing.

“She did a really good job of interpreting the work that the group was doing,” Pagano says. “And getting scenes from the participants’ lives outside the project. She got pretty intimate looks into their lives.”

Graduating high school. Falling in love. Having children, while still a child. Dealing with race. This movie is reality viewing, in the truest sense.

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