Film looks at school massacres in U.S., Scotland
THE EMOTIONAL toll of burying 16 children in Scotland in 1996 echoed across the Atlantic a decade and a half after the United Kingdom effectively banned all private ownership of firearms.
The connections between the horrific tragedy in Dunblane, Scotland, and the terror that unfolded in Newtown, Conn., become apparent in the striking 22-minute film “Notes from Dunblane: Lessons From a School Shooting.” So do the differences. The film, which looks at the relationship between two Catholic priests who struggled with the emotional fallout following the eerily similar shootings in elementary schools, won best documentary short at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Dunblane’s Father Basil O’Sullivan and Newtown’s Father Bob Weiss began writing each other after the Sandy Hook school shooting, sharing the hardships they faced as they comforted the families of slaughtered children and grappled with the political ramifications of the tragedies.
Director Kim Snyder and producer Maria Cuomo Cole told the Daily News that they were struck by the differences in how the two countries reacted to such similar shootings.
Tragedy struck Dunblane on March 13, 1996, when a man carrying more than 700 cartridges of ammunition burst through the Dunblane Primary School doors and murdered 16 children and one teacher. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history.
Parents immediately organized and brought together the Snowdrop Campaign in the U.K., which effectively banned all private ownership of firearms.
“Here in Sandy Hook for Newtown, everyone assumed that there would be some kind of change in policy,” said Snyder. “And there wasn’t on a federal level.”
Shooter Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults in Father Weiss’ hometown.
Although the two filmmakers are shocked at how little has been done in our country to curtail gun violence, they hold hope for the next generation.“Worldwide, we are looked upon with confusion,” said Cuomo Cole. “People are perplexed around the world about the policies of the United States.”
But the recent organization of students following the Parkland, Fla., school shooting that left 19 dead in February has given the filmmakers hope.
“Our inaction is also shameful, in a word. You talk to these young people and the anger to the adult world is valid and I think justifiable,” added Snyder.
Although the two are shocked at how little has been done in our country to curtail gun violence, they hold hope for the next generation.
“The voices of high school kids are compelling and it’s an energy we haven’t seen in a long time,” said Cuomo Cole. “They are going to start voting on the issue until the solutions are implemented into policy on some sort of federal level.”
The pair previously worked together on the award-winning feature documentary simply called “Newtown” that shined a light on the traumatized community in the wake of the nation’s worst school shooting.