Movie Review: Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane

Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Kim A. Snyder

 

Director Kim A. Snyder’s last film, Newtown (2016) was a devastating, hard to watch documentary about the aftermath of the Newtown shooting in 2012, that didn’t so much concentrate on the crime itself, but how the community struggled to put itself back together in its aftermath. Her new short documentary, Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane digs a little deeper into one of those stories that didn’t really make her previous film – about how an Irish priest, living in Scotland, reached out from across the ocean, because his own town of Dunblane had experienced a very similar massacre back in 1996.

 

The film basically follows two priests – Father O’Sullivan, from Scotland, and Father Weiss from Newtown, as the pair start emailing each other in the aftermath of Newtown shooting. The basic message O’Sullivan wants to convey is that nothing will ever truly heal all the wounds, but you have to keep pressing forward, and take care of yourself or else you will be no good to anyone else. Both priests walk through the cemeteries, noting the children they help bury. For the one-year anniversary, O’Sullivan comes to visit Newtown himself to help out.

 

The underlying message of Snyder’s films is about gun control – or the lack thereof. In this film, Father O’Sullivan notes that in the aftermath of the shooting in his town, they passed some of the strictest gun control legislation in the world in the UK to try and prevent it from happening again. “But that doesn’t seem to be the prevailing thought in America” he opines – stopping short of directly criticizing America, although his implication is clear. He also talks about the lasting impact this had on him in the 16 years between the shootings – in ways both large and small – like not being able to watch his beloved John Wayne films anymore.

 

Lessons from a School Shooting plays like what it kind of is – an outtake from a larger narrative. I don’t think a lot of people saw Newtown – I don’t blame them per se, it is a film that is very hard to watch, and most people wouldn’t want to put themselves through that. But it was an important film – and one that should be watched. This is a small part of that story – an interesting footnote if you will. And even then, it’s still hard for me to get through the film without crying.