Sunday, November 5 was a difficult day for myself as long as the rest of our country as news spread of another mass shooting that had taken place – this time at a small church in Texas. As I read the headlines on my phone, I became increasingly alarmed at my numbness to this news. I called my dad and asked when it would be that I’d wake up in a world without these weekly headlines. He had no answers for me.
Monday’s viewing and discussion, for this reason, came at an important time. “Newtown” was an incredibly well made documentary that Kim Snyder most definitely captured and executed well. It is important that topics that weigh so heavily on the lives of so many are properly told, and I think Snyder could not have done a better job. The beginning shots of the film followed by the interview with the first father create an immediate emotional impact that viewers can feel and thus become attached. Even the title of the film – simply “Newtown” – struck a cord because I immediately knew what the film would entail and the emotions it would surface. As a viewer, I knew I could not feel half the grief that these parents and siblings had from losing their first-grade children, but the content of the film made created an intense emotional impact on its viewers. We saw into the lives of these people before and after such a huge part of their happiness was taken from them.
I think it was important that Snyder did not include a picture, or much information, on the shooter. This film was about the victims and their struggles to go on after their children were murdered. So many films and news sources today tend to document and report on the killer or murderer, because, unfortunately, that is what people gravitate towards in the news. I appreciated that Snyder acknowledged this and defended her belief that he should not have been included.
Because of the events prior to Monday’s class, I was able to take a lot away from Snyder’s answers after the screening, especially when she spoke about the role of doctors in these events and their argument to find out why these events are taking place. This idea, spoken about by one doctor who was in the ER the day of this event, was definitely one that shed some hope of finding out why these things are happening and perhaps a way to decrease their frequent happenings. I was able to walk away from the film feeling upset but also with some sense of hope that these tragedies may one day come to a stop.