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So right now, go to 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.520 quins dot com slash chuck for free shipping and three 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:10.840 hundred and sixty five day returns. It's a full year 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.399 to build your wardrobe and you'll love it. Now available 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.679 in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.960 Go to qu I n ce dot com slash chuck 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.000 for free shipping, three hundred sixty five day returns quints 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:32.640 dot com slash chuck. So joining me now. He is 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:35.399 the directmentory that you can see on Netflix right now. 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:40.240 It's called All the Empty Rooms and this is uh 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.960 it's it's about gun violence, but it's not about gun violence. 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:50.080 What the doc is is about is going back to 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:54.680 the victims of school shootings, to their parents who allowed 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.040 my guest and his filmmakers. My guest is the director 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.200 of this film of All the Empty Rooms, called Joshua Seftel, 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:11.320 and it's in some ways a it's the bigger picture. 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.000 And I want to talk to josh about this because 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.160 I've I've done my own little things. When I was 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:19.280 doing Meet the Press Reports, our document document series that 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.919 I had put together in conjunction with me, the press, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.480 and we were constantly looking for different ways to portray 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:32.200 gun violence, to try to break through the numbness that 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:37.680 the public felt. And I you know, one time we 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:43.040 featured a mortician who explained what it was like to 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.679 deal with gunshot victims. And so we did our own 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:50.400 ways to do this. This was a very powerful another 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.079 powerful way to do it, and in fact, as powerful 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.880 as I've seen yet. And so the director of All 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.720 the Empty Rooms, Josh Seftel, joins me. Now, Joss, it's 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:00.359 nice to meet you. 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:02.720 Same here, Chuck, great to be here. 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.960 So, I mean that's the you know, in some ways, 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.720 you could say, Okay, I already know everything I need 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.320 to know about this, stop right. I mean, it's a 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:17.079 straightforward thing. And yet if you don't watch it, you 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:17.600 don't get it. 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.400 Yeah, a lot of people have said that they after 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:23.960 they watch it, they say, wow, that's not what I 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:30.960 was expecting. And I think what has happened is that 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.840 a lot of us in this country have become numb 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:41.360 to the idea of school shootings. You know, there was 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.360 a school shooting last week, and then there was one 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.280 in the week before, and there are about over one 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.560 hundred school shootings a year now, we don't even hear 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:54.720 about most of them, and we've reached the point where 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:57.480 it just becomes a headline that literally fades away within 0:03:58.440 --> 0:03:59.720 hours or even minutes. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.480 And we almost treated it like the flu. Oh there's 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.160 an outbreak, it's crazy. 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.440 We've we've accepted it as something that's normal, and it's 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:13.800 not normal. And we you know, with this film, like 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:17.960 your story about the mortician, it's it's another way of 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.720 talking about the issue, but it's really what we've done 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.760 is we've gone into the empty bedrooms and told the 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:30.200 stories of each child through the objects that are left 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.599 behind in that room. And there's something about that that 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:40.479 I think has resonated with people where it forces you 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.760 as a human being to feel something. 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.080 You know, we've shifted on this, and i'd say, you know, 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.680 you guys talked about in the in the Dock the 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.799 media's role in this, and when when school shootings first started, 0:04:55.440 --> 0:05:00.000 and and sort of the patient zero in this case 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.279 was the probably the University of Texas. You know, that 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:08.000 was the modern sort of beginning of this. And in 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.919 the eighties, you and I are about the same age. 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.680 We grew up with the so called postal shootings, right 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.600 where it was supposedly post you know, people were going 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:24.640 member it became a phrase, going postal. Then Columbine happens, 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:29.040 and it shifts and it's and there is something about 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:37.000 this mass shooting virus that's in our society where you know, yes, 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.960 the workplace is still a place that is a potential 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:45.000 vulnerable spot. But we haven't stopped with the school shootings, 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.440 like we haven't moved past that. It's continues to be 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:56.120 and it's a I think we're all trying to figure 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:57.440 out why is it accelerating? 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:06.560 Yeah, you know, in the in our film, Steve Hartman, 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:11.400 who is the CBS news reporter. He's on CBS Sunday 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:12.960 Morning and the evening news. 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:15.479 Right, he's the good news guy. He's the good you 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.719 feel better, right, He's the he is the way do 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:19.880 you hear this one? And in a good way? Right? 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.839 He makes you cry, It's it's one of those, but 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.000 it's in a good cry usually exactly. 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:30.520 And he decided, you know, seven years ago that he 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.000 was sick and tired of all the school shootings and 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.480 even having to report on them in a way where 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.840 they would say, hey, Steve, go go figure out, like 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.080 what's the silver lining on this one. You know, find 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.919 a hero, find a find the libraryan that you know 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.680 collected all the condolence cards, or find the EMT who 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:50.240 got there in time to save one of the lives. 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.359 And he and you know, those stories matter. But he 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:56.120 just reached a point where he said, I don't want 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:00.000 to do that anymore because nothing's changing. And when he started, 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:02.839 when he covered his first school shooting, which was in 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:07.680 nineteen ninety seven in pel Mississippi, he I think there 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:12.080 were seventeen school shootings a year, which is too many. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:16.640 But now when we were making the film, there were 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.040 over one hundred and thirty school shootings a year. So 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.520 you know, you do the math on that, and it's 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:25.400 just insane. 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.400 Well, this is why I understand why many people think, 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.800 is it the media's fault that this is accelerated, Not 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.800 that the media causes it, but that the media helps 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.280 plant the seed. Right, And look, you guys delve into this. 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.560 You know, when we first covered school shootings, it was 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:44.880 always through the perspective of the shooter. Who is this guy? 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.840 Who is this person that climbed up on the Texas 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:52.480 on the bell tower, Who is this person that was 0:07:52.560 --> 0:08:00.960 wearing a long coat leather coat, and they became infamous. Right, Yeah, 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.560 and then we rightly realized, hey, what are we doing? 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.360 You know, don't do this because that does you will 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:08.600 encourage copycatters. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:08.720 Right. 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.440 It's the same thing with with the coverage of serial 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:16.520 killers in the eighties and how how media covered serial 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.080 killers in the eighties. And I think it's a much 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:22.200 different situation now, but it's I mean, what is the 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:26.160 right way to do this? I think we The fact 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.880 that this gets worse, not better means we're not doing 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.480 this the right way. We haven't found it yet. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:38.320 There is you know, the most popular nonfiction programming out 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:43.760 there is true crime. Yeah, there's something about human beings 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.520 that we wanted. I personally am not interested in it, 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.960 but we want to hear these stories. We want to 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:53.839 hear about the person who did something bad. You want 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:59.640 to understand them, judge them, maybe see them face justice 0:08:59.720 --> 0:08:59.920 or not. 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:02.600 Yeah. I have a thesis that it's just all about 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:04.280 making ourselves feel better about our place. 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.440 And you know, I think you might be right. 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.920 Right, That's why this appeals so much because I I 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.679 don't get it either. I don't want to see how 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:15.839 bad humanity is to each other all the time. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.400 But I think that the news organizations, you know, are 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:23.120 are tempted by that kind of storytelling. And it's hard, 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.000 you know, because people are interested. But I do commend 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:31.240 many of them for shifting over time because a lot 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:35.840 of the organizations, including CBS News where Steve worked, have 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.360 made a commitment to not focus on the on the 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:43.480 shooters and to spend less time on that. And what 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.600 Steve Hartman wanted to do, and this is you know, 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:51.240 we followed him for this was a seven year project. 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:55.800 We followed him our film crew for a couple of 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:58.600 years of the toward the end of the project, and 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.000 what he wanted to do was to shifted even further 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:06.920 away from talking about the shooters to completely just focusing 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.520 on the lives lived by these children. And that's where 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:16.840 the empty bedrooms come in, is we you know, I 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.600 haven't told you how the project started. Steve was fed 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:23.040 up and he actually wrote a letter to every single 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.520 family who lost to child since Sandy Hook and he said, 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.480 I want to come to your house with a photographer 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:33.640 and I want to take pictures of your child's empty room. 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:40.679 And to his surprise, a bunch of people said yes. 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:46.679 And he started to collect these photographs. And then he 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:50.120 reached out to me three years ago and he was 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:52.880 he said, you know, I'm starting to collect these photos. 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.600 I don't know what to do with them, and do 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:59.120 you think there might be a documentary film here? And 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:00.959 he showed me one of the photos. It was a 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:05.600 photo of a child's bathroom and there was a toothpaste too, 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.880 with the cap left off, and you could tell and 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:14.640 feel the sense of the child who had once been 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.360 there and left that cap off, went to school saying 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.120 like I'll put that on later, and never came home, 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:26.800 and you could feel the absence literally, And I just thought, wow, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:29.520 this could be very powerful and a whole new way 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:35.200 to reframe this issue. And so that was three years ago. 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.839 We set out on the road a couple months after that, 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:44.040 using credit cards, trying to figure out how to piece 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:48.120 this together. And three years later, you know, we have 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:52.200 this film. It's on Netflix, it's nominated for an Academy Award, 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:59.160 and we're trying to show people a different side of 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:03.600 the issue, which is the children, Like what is the 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.560 cost of all of this? What is the cost? What 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:11.560 is the human toll that that we're all facing from this? 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.040 And because we don't get to see that. No, it 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:15.040 doesn't cover that. 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.400 We when I was telling you about the what what 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:20.920 I actually the piece that we had done, it's about 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.760 three years ago now it still sits in YouTube, and 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.920 it was it was part of this. You know, I 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:29.760 got frustrated that that the regular meet the press, I 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.360 couldn't tackle these issues right for a variety of reasons, right, meaning, oh, 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:34.760 you've got to be on the news and you've got 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:36.480 to react to what's happening in the White House, and 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.320 the Trump era is the Trump era, right, and you 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.920 realize we needed an outlet. We have all the we 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:43.760 have all the room in the world and the wage 0:12:43.800 --> 0:12:49.880 of streaming, right, and so we thought we wanted to 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.599 go back to these places where there were mass shootings 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.080 and just find out how people were living their lives 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.400 a year later, two years later. And that's how we 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.000 were at a bar, where how are people getting along 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:04.760 now with you know, six months later because we don't 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:08.400 go back. You know how often I've had to cover 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.040 a ton of school shootings, just like Steve did. I 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:13.920 mean that was just you know, if you if you 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.560 were in the main in television media in the in 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:20.240 the last twenty years you've had and had an anchor, 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.120 You've anchored your shrif of school shootings. We always say 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.360 we're not you know, hey, we'll be back. You know, 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.000 we're not just telling the story right now, we're coming back. 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.719 We don't come back, right we don't we By the way, 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:34.960 when we say we're going to come back, we do 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:39.120 mean it at the moment. You know, I really genuinely 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.600 believe that, like, yeah, we should, we definitely will come back. 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:43.520 And then stuff happens. 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.600 More school shootings happen usually. And what was interesting for 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.640 us was that some of the people we visited and 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.160 photographed the empty rooms in their houses was they had 0:13:56.160 --> 0:14:01.160 never talked to the press. It's amazingly why they had 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:03.520 said no. They said no, I mean, why would they 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.839 want to talk to the press, you know, after they. 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:08.600 But they need to share that, you know, in some ways, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.400 I think what you're hopefully with this, what this does 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.520 for families and victims. You have to tell your story. 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.480 I know it's hurts, but you have to tell your story. 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:23.480 People need to see this. And that was exactly that 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:25.960 was all the way back to Emmett Till. Right when 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.400 Emmettill's mother said you must print these photos in Life magazine. 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:31.680 Yes, that's right, that's agreed. 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.000 This is in some ways it's a derivative of that. 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.640 Yeah, that's a great comparison. The families said to us, 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.800 we don't want our child to be forgotten. We want 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.520 the world to know about them. And we were saying 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.680 to them, we're coming here to tell the world about 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.000 your child and who they were and the life they 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:58.800 lived through through the empty room, and we were very 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:04.080 much aligned in that, and it's what they want. They 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:05.640 want the world to not forget. 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.600 Do you hate hangovers, We'll say goodbye to hangovers. Out 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.160 of Office gives you the social buzz without the next 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.840 day regret. They're best selling. Out Office gummies were designed 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.600 to provide a mild, relaxing buzz, boost your mood, and 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.280 enhance creativity and relaxation. 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So protect 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.080 your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get your free 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.840 quote at ethos dot com slash chuck. So again, that's 0:17:55.920 --> 0:18:00.959 Ethos dot com slash chuck. Application to may vary, and 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.719 the rates themselves may vary as well, but trust me, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.080 life insurance is something you should really think about, especially 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:13.200 if you've got a growing family. You know, in this 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.639 day and age where there's record there's so many recordings now, 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.000 and you know, I'm sitting here watching your film and 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.399 I'm thinking at the same time, and I'm wondering if 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.840 I'm in this position for whatever reason, I'm two kids 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:34.560 in college. I don't know what I would want. I 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:36.639 don't know if I would want to say videos of 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:42.239 them and see them alive, if I can't be with 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.200 them alive. I was just thinking, you know, it was 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.199 one of those that was I didn't know if that 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.200 was gut wrenching or not. The keeping the room as 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:55.280 it is made that really resonated with me. It is 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.760 this day and age where you get to go back 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:02.560 into time and see these people alive. It's spooky and 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:04.520 I don't know how I would handle that as a 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.240 as a parent. I that was a It was one 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:09.119 of those I've just was you know, you do you 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:11.239 let your own mind wander when you have your you know, 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.399 when you when you're And I'm sure a lot of 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.359 people who have watched this film have shared with you 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:18.760 experiences like that where you just start putting yourself in 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.520 that place. What would you do? How would you do it? 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:23.840 I really connected with the mother who said, you know 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.639 what I did? I want the room to smell like 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:28.359 my son. 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:29.480 Yeah. 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.360 And I thought about that because my kids just are 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.480 in college. They're still here, they're still alive, but their 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:41.160 rooms smell like them in my nest, and it means 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:43.840 a lot to me. So I don't it is it is. 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:48.040 That's what made this move film so powerful, is that 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:50.720 you actually didn't need you barely needed narration. 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.720 Yeah, well there's so there's you know that that room 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:02.840 in Santa Clarita Dominic Blackwell's bedroom, the parents keep the 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:06.760 dirty laundry basket. Yeah, it's been there for six years 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.919 and they haven't got that. Yeah, and and they, like 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:12.760 you said, they keep it because they don't want to 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:18.719 lose the smell of their child. And Frank was telling 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.160 me the other day, Frank's Dominic's father. He was saying 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.960 that the hardest part is that you start to forget 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:31.000 what their voice sounded like. And and I think that's 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.560 why they liked having the video. You actually start to 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:37.200 forget what their voice sounded like, and then you hear 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:42.600 the you watch the video and you remember. So it's 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:44.800 a it's uh, yeah, it's unimaginable. 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:47.639 How do you compartmentalize when you make something like this? 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:50.560 Because there are days, there were days when I'd cover 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:52.080 school shooting. So I mean, look, I was at the 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.240 White House lawn for Sandy Hook and my kids were 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:58.520 the same exact age, right, And I was on the 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.960 lawn with the Jake Tapper and Norah O'Donnell at the time, 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:03.840 and we all had kids the same age, and we 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.320 were a wreck, and we had to do live shots 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:10.840 all day and it was exhausting and you know, no, please, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.679 it wasn't even I wasn't a victim, right, it was 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.960 just you know, having to having to pull it together 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:22.359 right and not be able to. So how do you 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:26.400 how did you how did you compartmentalize putting this together? 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:31.760 Because it's this, this, this really had to hit you 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:32.960 on some days. 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.359 Yeah, I mean two of the kids in the film 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:40.159 are this We're the same age as my daughter, my 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:48.520 oldest daughter, nine years old. Yeah, it is. It's tough. 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:53.000 I try not to center my experience in the in 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:57.120 talking about the film, because that, you know, what these 0:21:57.160 --> 0:21:59.080 families have gone through. 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:01.520 Is just, yeah, this is their experience. 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:06.679 I get that it's unacceptable, it's it's horrible, but I 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:12.360 think that you know the experience of being in those bedrooms. 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:15.760 You know, I travel a lot for my work. I'm 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:21.320 away from my family a lot this project. When I 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:24.960 was away, every time I came home I had never been. 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:28.359 I always loved coming home, but it was a different 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:34.440 level of getting to see my kids again and feeling 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:39.760 a sense of gratitude for for what I have. I 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:42.920 think that, you know, the our hope is that the 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:47.480 power of this film is in trying to capture what 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:49.800 is what it was like to be in those rooms, 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:52.399 what it was like for me and my team to 0:22:52.520 --> 0:22:56.840 go into those bedrooms, because our hope is that everyone 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:01.840 will feel the weight of the law, will feel that absence, 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:10.640 and it will, you know, reconnect them with something that's 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:13.399 already within them. I mean, you think about how you 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:18.199 felt when you heard about Sandy Hook, or how you 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:21.320 felt when you heard about ubildy or how you felt 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:25.680 when you heard about Columbine, and I don't think most 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:27.680 of us feel that way anymore. When we hear about 0:23:27.680 --> 0:23:31.840 a school shooting. We're not as shocked, we're not as outraged, 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:35.959 we're not as engaged. We might not even read the article. 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:43.000 And what we're trying to do is to get people reconnected, 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:46.120 to feel that those feelings again that they felt back then, 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:51.359 because we our hope is that we can take that 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:56.280 empathy we might feel from watching this film and channel 0:23:56.320 --> 0:24:01.280 it into change, into re engaging with issue, into having 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.400 hope again that maybe we can create change because where 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:05.960