Kim Snyder’s Newtown film is powerful. In today’s day and age where mass shootings have become the norm it has become easy for us to forget the individual stories of the people affected by the tragedies. Newtown gives a voice to a community that more often than not isn’t given the chance to speak for themselves. Snyder uses creative discretion to empower the citizens of Newtown through her film. Throughout the documentary she deliberately left out the name and image of the shooter. I appreciated her decision so much because like her entire film it was a departure from much of the narrative surrounding mass shooting s in America. Everything from the way Snyder approached families to be in her film to the way she framed the discussion around the tragedy in her documentary did work to mend the wounds of the Newtown community.
The screening of Newtown and the discussion that followed were especially important in light of the events in Texas. In the film a physician from the Newtown area presented the phenomena of American mass shootings as a public health crisis we need to approach these events as such rather than as isolated events. Snyder’s film is so important in today’s day and age, and provides an example of what good documentary work should do.