A filmmaker has shared his motivations for contributing to a Netflix short film that viewers have described as ‘devastating’.
As the year 2025 draws to a close, Netflix continues to impress with its recent releases, ranging from engrossing TV series to heart-wrenching documentaries.
The latest documentary to capture the attention of viewers is a short film focusing on the victims of mass shootings in the United States.
According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, the country has experienced 222 school shootings so far this year.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joshua Seftel collaborated with CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman on this moving documentary, which many find emotionally challenging to watch.
Titled All The Empty Rooms, the film chronicles Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they commemorate the bedrooms of children who lost their lives in school shootings.
Among the highlighted families are those of Dominic Blackwell and Gracie Muehlberger, both victims of the 2019 Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita, California.
The documentary also includes the families of nine-year-old Jackie Cazares, one of the 19 children killed in the 2022 Uvalde, Texas school shooting, and Hallie Scruggs, who was the same age when she was killed in the 2023 Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.
Viewers took to social media to express their thoughts, describing the documentary as ‘an astonishing, deeply human masterpiece’.
Another viewer called it ‘heartbreaking but necessary,’ stating: “Every frame and silence feels alive with emotions and says more than words ever could. Every photo taken during the film compels you to listen to what is unsaid.”
On Reddit, some admitted that the short film brought them to tears, while others found it too difficult to bear.
“It was a hard watch, tears through the whole documentary,” one user commented, adding: “Absolutely heartbreaking.”
Another individual shared that it was ‘too painful’ to watch.
In an interview with Netflix Tudum, Seftel explained his reasons for producing All the Empty Rooms.
“The reporting on school shootings tends to focus on headlines and statistics, and I think that can make us numb,” he said.
“It makes it harder for us to truly process what is happening on a human level. We don’t usually get to know the people who were affected by these acts of violence.”
Seftel elaborated that his motivation for creating the film was to ‘reframe the issue of school shootings by putting the focus on the children who were killed, and on the families who are clinging to the memory of their children through these empty bedrooms’.
“I believe that framing makes it harder for us to ignore this or to look away – that we will never again read a headline about a mass shooting without thinking of the empty rooms.”
Discussing the exploration of children’s rooms in the film, he added: “Each child in this film was an individual who had a rich and unique life, and I hope people will get a sense of what they enjoyed and what brought them joy.
“To me, this film is about loss, and to understand that loss, I think you need to understand the life that was there before.”
All The Empty Rooms is currently available for streaming on Netflix.