An Oscar-nominated documentary that goes into the bedrooms of children killed in US school shootings hopes to drive home the reality of such tragedies. ‘I’ve never been so frightened,’ says its director
S
teve Hartman has been a CBS correspondent since 1996. In the US, he is known for his feelgood human interest stories. This month he has reported on the retirement of a well-loved New Jersey postman after 33 years on the job and a truck driver who has spent two decades building a balsa wood scale replica of New York City.
But since 1997, Hartman has also been reporting on school shootings, which have become a horrifyingly common feature of American life. (CNN reports that there were at least 78 in 2025, though there is no universal definition of a school shooting, which means that numbers vary depending on the source. Other reports suggest a much higher figure.)
Hartman would try to talk about the human angle, the hero’s story, but his attempts to find light in the darkness were beginning to feel repetitive. “I saw that America was moving on from each school shooting quicker and quicker every time,” he says, in the arresting short documentary All the Empty Rooms. Eight years ago, he decided to try a different approach.
