PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A film inspired by the true story of a Florida reform school is nominated for the Oscar for best picture.
"Nickel Boys" is based on a novel by the same name, about boys sent to the fictional "Nickel Academy" in Florida's panhandle, where they suffered horrific abuse. The details of the story were inspired by the real story of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, a town roughly 60 miles west of Tallahassee.
Arthur G. Dozier School attendees share their stories with WPTV
The story in the film is told from the perspective of two Black boys who were sent to the school in the segregated Jim Crow south during the dawn of the civil rights era. While the characters are fictional, many of the details were true to the harsh reality of the Dozier School. Most notably, the White House.
The White House, as it's called in the movie and real life, was the small building on campus where boys – regardless of race – were taken for brutal beatings, sometimes within inches of their lives.
"They used the beatings for fear factor," Roy Conerly, who attended the Dozier School in the 1960s, told WPTV. "You do this, this, or this, you're going to the White House. And you never knew if you were actually going to go or not. You know, they might come get you in the middle of the night."
"It was also told that if this was ever told to parents or anything, the penalties that we would pay would be 10 times more harsh than a beating," added Daniel Gainer, another survivor from the 1960s.
The Dozier School shut down in 2011, after 111 years.
Survivors of abuse at Florida School for Boys reflect on finally being able to apply for compensation
The remains of dozens of children were found there in unmarked graves in 2012, some of which were never identified. They remain memorialized on the campus near the cemetery known as Boot Hill, both in real life and in the movie. The White House is also preserved as a monument and tribute to the boys who suffered there.
Last year, Florida lawmakers unanimously passed a $20 million victim compensation fund for survivors of the Dozier School, and its brother school, the Florida School for Boys at Okeechobee, which was founded in 1955 after Dozier became overcrowded.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, more than 900 people filed claims for that money.
"Nickel Boys" has not been widely released. According to Fandango.com, the only theater showing it in Palm Beach County is in Boca Raton. The film, produced by Amazon MGM Studios, is expected to be released on Amazon Video in the coming months.
