All the Empty Rooms is a hard-hitting documentary of only 35 minutes. It’s about the empty rooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.

All the Empty Rooms grew from a 7 year project by Steve Hartman. In a special project his boss didn’t know about, he traveled the country talking with parents of children murdered in school shootings and photographing the empty rooms left behind. Photographer Lou Bopp traveled with him.

When the documentary opens, there are three homes to visit. We see those interactions and watch as the bedrooms are photographed.

Many rooms were just as the child left them on the day they were murdered. Dirty clothes, photos, things they loved and played with, keepsakes. Lou Bopp recorded it all in intimate detail.

The visit from Steve Hartman gave the parents a chance to talk about their child, to explain some of the items in the room, and to share their grief.

The brilliant thing about this documentary is that it puts the focus where it belongs: on the missing children whose lives were cut short by gun violence. There are so many of these bedrooms where life was lived that are now shrines to what might have been. So many grieving families. It’s a powerful approach to a uniquely American problem.

Every American should watch this short film. It’s streaming on Netflix. Watch it.