NYWIFT Blog

By Katie Chambers

The powerful short film Death By Numbers recently made its NYC premiere at DOC NYC 2024 in the “Caretakers” Short Film Program. In the piece, a survivor testifies at the trial of the Parkland high school shooter, confronting her trauma while examining the nature of hate, and of restorative justice.

NYWIFT Member Cynthia Kane is Co-Producer on the film. “Death By Numbers marks the third project I’ve had the privilege to co-produce alongside Kim A. Snyder. It has been an incredible honor to collaborate with Kim, Sam, Janique, and Maria, witnessing this timely and powerful film take shape and find its way to audiences across the country and the world,” Kane told us. “Watching Sam’s remarkable growth—as both an artist and a person—since we first met her during the making of Us Kids has been truly inspiring. Even after countless viewings, this film continues to leave me deeply reflective. It challenges me to consider what restorative justice truly entails, and how individuals find the courage to reclaim their power in the aftermath of trauma and tragedy.”

Director and producer Kim A. Snyder‘s latest film Death By Numbers premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival, followed by the Woodstock Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival (winner Best Short Documentary) and DOC NYC. Her film Us Kids premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Prior films include: Newtown (Peabody Award, U.S. Documentary Competition – 2016 Sundance Film Festival, PBS’s Independent Lens and Netflix); Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane, a Netflix Original Documentary (2018 Tribeca Film Festival – Best Documentary Short, 2018 Sheffield DocFest – DocDispatch Award, Grierson Award nomination); Welcome to Shelbyville (PBS/Independent Lens 2011) and 12+ short documentaries. Her award-winning directorial debut, I Remember Me was distributed by Zeitgeist Films. Kim associate-produced the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor (1994) spawning The Trevor Project, a national organization addressing LGBTQ suicide.

Snyder spoke to us on the day of the film’s premiere.

 

 

Congratulations! What does inclusion in DOC NYC mean to you?

It’s an honor to be a part of the largest documentary festival, especially in its 15th anniversary year. As a long-time New Yorker, having our NYC premiere just downtown in my home turf with crew and friends is very meaningful. My memories of first volunteering with the IFP in these same streets date back to my 20s and are quite nostalgic! Mostly, there are so many stories of resilience from all over the world being told and we’re humbled to be among them.

 

What inspired you to make Death By Numbers?

I first met Sam during the making of my last film, Us Kids (Sundance 2020), in the days following her tragic school shooting (Parkland) that took the lives of 17 of her classmates and educators and wounded 17 others, herself among them.

Sam moved to NYC and our relationship evolved into a profound friendship; she shared her journal writings with me (aka Death By Numbers). These writings inspired us to consider a film that would address the terrain of trauma and her more existential questions about hatred and justice as she awaited the sentencing trial of her shooter.

 

Tell us about your young protagonist.

Sam is truly a unicorn. A rare human being with an artistic soul and tremendous talents. I continue to learn so much from her about resilience and courage. She has an uncanny ability to make those around her feel comfortable despite the profound PTSD she endures, in a selfless and generous way, I think to protect others from the nightmares that often play out in her head. And her words are simply wise.

 

How do you as a filmmaker practice self-care as you interact with and empathize with subjects dealing with tragedy?

Admittedly, I don’t do the best job at this – and I do think, as filmmakers, we need to take the realities of secondary trauma more seriously. I think that a type of survivors’ guilt can begin to take hold as you process the enormity of the trauma of your film participants, and in comparison, it feels indulgent to acknowledge your own trauma which can be problematic. I suppose this is in a sense another way of defining compassion fatigue.

 

 

What was your biggest challenge in making the film?

An important and intentional decision that we made in deciding how we wanted to treat the likeness of the shooter in our film was done in total collaboration with Sam over many long conversations. In deciding to conceal the face of her shooter during the courtroom scenes, until the end, we wanted to align with the No Notoriety movement of the larger gun violence survivor community.

The quest for notoriety and infamy is a well-known motivating factor in rampage mass killings and violent copycat crimes. We refused to give the shooter that attention. Our priority was always to focus on Sam’s strength, poise and journey to reclaim her power as she prepared to confront him.

 

What do you hope audiences will take away from the film?

We hope that the film will be seen by general audiences across the country to break through the inevitable numbness that we all feel as we become inured to gun violence with the countless shootings across cities, schools, homes, and public spaces that we can no longer emotionally process on a daily basis. Sam’s ultimate story of empowerment in bravely facing and confronting her shooter is profoundly inspiring to me personally and fortifies my resolve to remain committed to advocating for gun violence prevention.

While the film is not direct advocacy in tone, it begs the question of why we endure allowing assault weapons to fall so readily into the hands of civilians. We hope this resonates as a story highlighting an epidemic health crisis rather than one of political partisanship. Our youth demands and deserves this.

 

How has your festival experience been? Any special moments to share with us?

As we’re on the day of our NYC premiere, we are full of excitement which is always coupled with remembering the fact that we wish we didn’t have to keep telling these stories. As always, we love that DOC NYC brings together our documentary filmmaking community.

At the Visionaries Lunch we were reminded of the power that we as documentarians have to effect change in the world – something we all must remember in these challenging times.

 

What is next for you?

I am currently in post-production on a feature-length documentary chronicling librarians under siege who join forces as unlikely defenders fighting for intellectual freedom on the front lines of democracy as an unprecedented wave of book banning is sparked in Texas, Florida, and beyond. The film is set to release in early 2025.

 

Cynthia Kane is one of 18 NYWIFT Members with projects at DOC NYC 2024. Check out the full lineup!