Steve Hartman
Self
Overview
A journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.
Cast
6 peopleReviews
5 min readThe Rooms That Remember Us
I keep thinking about the hair tie.
It’s coiled on a doorknob in one of the bedrooms—pink, slightly frayed, the kind you’d find in any middle-schooler’s bathroom. The camera lingers on it for maybe three seconds, no music, no narration, just the quiet hum of a house that isn’t empty but should be. That hair tie does more work than any montage of news footage ever could.
It tells you everything: a kid was here. A kid who braided her hair before school, who forgot to take this one off, who never came back to claim it.
All the Empty Rooms is a 34-minute documentary about the bedrooms left behind after school shootings. But really, it’s about the objects that outlive us. A half-finished science project on a desk.
A pair of sneakers by the door, laces still tied. A bed made so neatly it looks like a museum exhibit. The film’s power isn’t in what it shows—it’s in what it refuses to show.
No crime scene photos. No perpetrators. No sensationalism.
Just rooms, and the people who can’t bring themselves to change them.
Director Joshua Seftel and journalist Steve Hartman (who originated the project) don’t just film these spaces—they let them breathe. The camera moves slowly, almost reverently, as if afraid to disturb the dust. There’s no voiceover explaining what you’re seeing.
No dramatic score swelling to tell you when to feel sad. The grief is in the details: a mother smoothing a blanket she’ll never wash again. A father pointing to a poster on the wall, his voice cracking when he says, “She picked that out herself.” The film trusts you to understand what’s missing.
And that’s the trick, isn’t it? We’re so used to documentaries about tragedy being loud—shouting statistics, replaying 911 calls, cutting to politicians pointing fingers. All the Empty Rooms is quiet. Painfully, suffocatingly quiet.
It’s the kind of quiet that makes you lean in, straining to hear the echo of a laugh that isn’t there anymore.
Audience Opinions
Audience 7.8/10
"An emotionally devastating documentary that honors lost children through absence rather than sensationalism, though some want more actionable depth."
The film’s focus on empty bedrooms and the everyday details of the children’s lives hits extremely hard, with many describing it as beautifully crafted, painfully sad, and one of the most heartbreaking shorts they have ever seen. latestnetflix.com's take is that the gentle, non-manipulative style and refusal to sensationalize the shootings earn strong respect, but several viewers feel the film stops at grief and sadness without offering a clearer call to action or fuller exploration beyond its singular emotional register.
What viewers praise
- Overwhelming emotional impact Frequently described as devastating and tear-inducing, leaving viewers thinking about the families long after it ends.
- Respectful non-sensational tone Praised for avoiding dramatics, graphic imagery, and glamorization, instead treating grief with honesty and dignity.
- Haunting visual concept The focus on empty rooms and personal objects is seen as painfully beautiful and a powerful way to make the children feel real.
- Compact but powerful length The roughly 35-minute runtime is viewed as tightly constructed, delivering heavy emotional weight without filler.
- Humanizing focus on victims Emphasis on the children’s lives and their families’ love is valued as a quiet memorial rather than attention on perpetrators.
Common complaints
- Lack of call to action Several viewers feel the film largely communicates that the situation is tragic without pushing toward solutions or concrete action.
- Limited thematic layering Some find it stays on a single emotional note and wish it explored more angles or offered deeper context.
- Focus balance concerns A few comments criticize giving too much narrative space to the project’s initiator instead of broadening the families’ perspectives.
- Hopeful ending not convincing At least one viewer feels the attempt to close on a hopeful note does not land emotionally after the preceding sorrow.
- Too short for some viewers While many appreciate the brevity, others explicitly wish it were longer to spend more time with each family and story.
Recommended for
Issue-driven documentary fans Short documentary enthusiasts Social justice storytelling Grief and loss explorations Non-sensational true stories
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsA Uvalde mother took the Oscar. CBS never signed the trip.
Gloria Cazares wore a red dress and a pin of Jackie, her 9-year-old killed at Robb Elementary in 2022. She stood with Joshua Seftel, producer Conall Jones, and CBS correspondent Steve Hartman on March 15, 2026, when All the Empty Rooms won Best Documentary Short at the 98th Academy Awards. Seftel named Hallie, Gracie, Dominic, and Jackie, then passed the mic. "Jackie is more than just a headline," Cazares said. "Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. latestnetflix.com's take is that we believe that if the world could see their empty bedrooms, we'd be a different America."
Netflix had already bought the 33-minute short as the first sale out of Telluride 2025 and told The Hollywood Reporter it planned an awards push. UTA Independent Film Group closed it. Lou Bopp's stills hung at the Ah Haa Gallery on Pacific Avenue while the Le Pierre screening ran. The streamer dated the global drop December 1. ,
The On the Road reporter went around his bosses
Hartman rang Seftel the morning after the 2023 Oscars. They had not spoken in 25 years, from the late 1990s when Seftel produced Hartman's uplifting CBS stories. Hartman said he was photographing empty bedrooms with Bopp and did not want to appear. Seftel said the film needed him in it. "He's not political," Seftel told reporters later. "He's just someone who cares about people." The Film Collaborative press notes are colder. Hartman left the feel-good beat "unbeknownst to his network's bosses." He wrote every family that lost a child to a school shooting since Columbine. Many had never talked to the press. , , ,
Bopp shot eight rooms from 2017 into 2024. The Netflix cut keeps four. Hallie Scruggs, Nashville 2023. Dominic Blackwell and Gracie Anne Muehlberger, Saugus High in Santa Clarita. Jacklyn Jaylen Cazares, Uvalde. Three Parkland rooms and one Sandy Hook room did not make the film. Hair ties on a doorknob, an overdue library book, a toothpaste cap left off. Bopp called it "a portrait of a child who isn't there." , ,
McKay and Kerr arrived with the awards campaign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhpJ8INsR0g
Adam McKay and Steve Kerr are listed as executive producers. McKay told THR the film takes viewers "into the intimate bottomless loss at the center of all of these preventable tragedies." Kerr, CBS noted, signed on to help promote it and "was not involved in making it." THR added that Kerr lost his father to gun violence. Kerr wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the parents "are not asking to be symbols." Smartypants, Artemis Rising, and Hyperobject Industries produced. Alex Somers wrote the score. PG-13. The official trailer is on Netflix's YouTube. , , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.