All The Empty Rooms Is Coming To Netflix Dec. 1, So Schedule Your Therapy Accordingly

Look, when it comes to the tragedies happening around the world right now, it feels like there is a constant influx of headlines and hot takes being piped straight to our phones. But sometimes what we really need to engage with a hard subject is a slowed-down, thoughtful approach. On Dec. 1, Netflix is releasing All The Empty Rooms, a short 33-minute documentary taking viewers inside the bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. No, it’s not an easy watch by any means, but it looks like one of those pieces of art that might actually make a difference.

On Nov. 14, Netflix released the trailer for All The Empty Rooms, which debuted at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival earlier this year. The documentary follows CBS News’ Steve Hartman, a career broadcast journalist who spent the past seven years traveling around the country to visit families who have lost children to gun violence in America. Alongside photographer Lou Bopp, he interviews the families who let him into their children’s bedrooms, sharing what those spaces mean to them now.

The moving short film is directed by Joshua Seftel, who was nominated for an Oscar for 2023’s Stranger at the Gate. In his director’s statement, Seftel said the film is meant to shake Americans out of their numbness and “rekindle an urgency to do something.”

“After Sandy Hook, Parkland, and so many other school shootings, I began to feel numb. As a parent of two little girls, it was hard to even let myself think about the possibilities. Then, last year, my phone rang. It was veteran CBS News Reporter Steve Hartman. In the late ‘90s, I was Steve’s producer as he became nationally known for telling one-of-a-kind uplifting, good news stories. But it had been 25 years since we had spoken.”

The pair traveled to three cities where school shootings occurred — Uvalde, Texas, Santa Clarita, California, and Nashville, Tennessee — in an attempt to capture the true depth of loss when a child is killed.

“We get to know the children through the rooms they left behind,” Seftel writes. “They came to life for us, and the weight of their absence was crushing. After returning home, I came away with a new perspective on family and life in America. It’s impossible not to feel a greater sense of gratitude toward my children and a burning desire to change the course of this crisis.”

The trailer alone is absolutely heart-wrenching. Seeing the hair ties on the doorknob, the collection of sneakers, the posters and empty beds — it makes very real the loss each family has endured. This is not some light holiday watch, but it feels like one of those films that everyone in America should sit through and witness.