This short film about a school shooting shouldn’t feel this familiar
What: Safety, a short film about an elementary school shooting
Who: Director Fabrice Joubert
Why we care: French filmmaker Fabrice Joubert’s short film about a school shooting was posted online just 10 days before the shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. But it’s not a matter of prescience on Joubert’s part—it merely underscores how severe the topic at hand truly is.
Safety, based on a 2015 short story of the same name by Lydia Fitzpatrick, depicts an elementary school shooting largely from the perspective of the kids. What was a normal day in gym class becomes a gripping story of survival after gunshots on the school’s premises force the gym teacher and his students to take cover and hope for the best.
It’s subject matter that, unfortunately, remains highly relevant: The Santa Clarita shooting marked the 38th shooting this year at an elementary or secondary school in the United States. With the U.S. government refusing to pass any meaningful legislation to curb gun violence, it’s just a matter of weeks until Santa Clarita gets pushed aside for a newer tragedy.
“As a French filmmaker living in the United States, and more importantly as a father, the issue of gun violence has always been profoundly unsettling to me,” Joubert said on the film’s website. “What really interested me in that story was the impact of gun violence on human beings rather than the political side of it. My hope is that Safety can become an additional voice to end gun violence in this country and keep the conversation moving in the right direction.”
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