All the Empty Rooms. Produced by Joshua Seftel, Conall Jones, James Costa, and Trevor Burgess; directed by Joshua Seftel. In English. 2025; color; 33 minutes. A Smartypants Production, distributed by Netflix

Authors

• Christopher Strain, Florida Atlantic UniversityFollow

Document Type

Review

Abstract

Christopher Strain, an American studies scholar, reviews the Academy Award-winning short documentary All the Empty Rooms. Director Joshua Seftel’s film travels into the bedrooms of American children shot to death at school. Seftel visited children’s families over seven years, profiling in his film four children, ages 9 to 15, documenting the ordinariness of their childhoods before their deaths and the grief of the families they left behind.

Recommended Citation

Strain, Christopher (2026) "All the Empty Rooms. Produced by Joshua Seftel, Conall Jones, James Costa, and Trevor Burgess; directed by Joshua Seftel. In English. 2025; color; 33 minutes. A Smartypants Production, distributed by Netflix," Journal of Hate Studies: Vol. 19: Iss. 1, Article 27.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64749/2169-7442.1287
Available at: https://repository.gonzaga.edu/jhs/vol19/iss1/27

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