Parkland students create music video that’s part anthem, part rallying cry

Author: CNN/CBS News
Published: Updated:
SWFL honors memory of Parkland school shooting victims. WINK News

The pain on their faces and in their lyrics is palpable. But the determination in their voices rings loud and clear.

It’s the chorus to “Shine,” a song written by a pair of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High drama students that’s part anthem, part rallying cry and that expresses their pain after the mass shooting at the Parkland, Florida, school that killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day.

A video to the song — composed by Sawyer Garrity, 16, and Andrea Pena, 15 — was released on Friday, and it features scenes of Stoneman Douglas students and their families helping each other heal in various ways: a hug between a father and his daughter in the school drop-off line; an art student drawing the words “Kids Lives Matter” on a project; children giving a big group hug to a school staff member as he walks a hallway.

The video was produced and directed by Brittani Kagan, a 2007 graduate of the school, and all proceeds from the downloads and views of it will go to Shine MSD, a nonprofit created by Stoneman Douglas families to support programs that provide healing through the arts. Garrity and Pena’s song was also performed live at the March for Our Lives in Washington back in March.

Kagan heard the girls sing the song while visiting the school after the shooting. She was so moved by it that Kagan, who works for a digital studio in Los Angeles, promised the girls she’d do whatever she could to get their song out.

She produced the video with help from other alumni and the entertainment community in South Florida, with many people either working on the project for free or donating resources and equipment.

The video was shot at the school and at the Washington march and features nearly 100 students, including the victims’ families, who hold up pictures of their loved ones at the start of the song.

The video, which runs for about five minutes, ends simply but powerfully. After the song is over, the names of the 17 people killed in the shooting that day appear on screen. Watch below.

Copyright ©2024 Fort Myers Broadcasting. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without prior written consent.