In light of the recent shooting in Texas, I think Snyder’s film was especially poignant. I like how each speaker we’ve hosted, though their material is vastly different, share one distinct filmic struggle, which is the ethical dilemma that documentary film evokes. It was especially important that Snyder brought up the difference between independent filmmakers and non-independent filmmakers, and the leeway a filmmaker gets when they are independent versus when they are not. Snyder brought up an interesting anecdote that applies to this ethical dilemma: she told us about how she filmed one of the fathers of the deceased at the cemetery, paying his respects. Later, when he talked it over with his wife, they came to the conclusion that they didn’t want the footage to be shown, so Snyder, being the empathetic filmmaker that she is, told them that no one would ever see it. Snyder went on to explain that if she had been working for a big company like Sony or something, she would never have been able to make that decision independently to scrap the footage from the film, because it wouldn’t have been her decision to make. This goes along with the ethics of filmmaking dilemma, and it was something that really stuck out to me during the discussion. It is a perfect anecdote that shows that Synder was trying to maintain a healthy relationship with the families in Newtown and do their story the justice it deserves.
