NEWTOWN

"This film is an important historical record, and an important reminder of an event in American history that could have changed everything, that should have changed everything. There's no reason why it still can't. Newtown is a crucial reminder of that." – Indiewire

When Newtown premiered at Sundance in January this year, the dreadful events the name has become synonymous with reigned as one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history. That it has since been eclipsed is appalling but unsurprising. Kim A Snyder's emotionally wrenching but deeply compassionate film is a cogent argument against letting such horrors become the new normal in our collective memories.

Necessarily heartbreaking, Newtown takes viewers into the homes and daily lives of three families who lost children, as well as of first responders, teachers, neighbours and others directly impacted by the events of 14 December 2012. Focusing on the aftermath instead of the shooting itself, Snyder has constructed an elegant work of quietude that touches on the politics of US gun violence but is more concerned with personal and communal grief, and resilience; with how you live, day after day, after the headlines have ended and the world has moved onto the next unspeakable tragedy.

"We don't really talk about this issue, not really; we make it about "rights" and "liberty" because what actually happened to these children and their families is simply unfathomable. But it happened, and attention must be paid, and this powerful film reverberates with the urgency of that need." – Flavorwire

Britt Arthur will host a Q&A with Kim A. Snyder at the session on 1 August.