American Tragedy
Catalogue Number: TVP081
Producer: Video Project, Inc.
Producing Agencies: Boldrush LLC
Subject: American History, Criminal Justice & Law, Documentary, Guidance, Health, Psychology, Social Issues, Social Sciences, Sociology
Language: English
Grade Level: 9 - 12, Post Secondary, Adult
Country Of Origin: United States
Copyright Year: 2020
Running Time: 78:44
A mother grapples to understand how her son became a school shooter and what it would take to prevent the next shooting.
April 20, 1999 Columbine High School came under attack by two of its own students: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In a new documentary, Sue Klebold (Dylan’s mother) attempts to understand how her son became one of the most notorious school shooters in history.
After Columbine, Sue was hated across America. She was caricatured as an unloving, aloof, and absent parent. Yet Sue describes a happy family full of fun, laughter, and love. “If love could have stopped Columbine,” she says, “Columbine would never have happened.”
To understand what took place, Sue has scoured her past, reconciling the son she knew with the monster she didn’t. She has met with leading experts and gained insight among other suicide loss survivors. She has come to better understand what took place at Columbine. It was not a rare sensational event but a particularly gruesome appendage to a much larger and more prevalent problem.
Sue’s is an invaluable story that forces us to reconceptualize what prevention should look like, to rethink what it will take to stop the next American tragedy.
"People don't want to feel that compassion for Sue. They want to blame her, but the ability to use a documentary to help develop compassion, for people to empathize with what Sue went through, I think that is incredibly important." — Matthew Mishkind, Deputy Director, Johnson Depression Center, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Related Titles
Dawson College: Road to Recovery: W5
CTV CTV344For 18 minutes, Kimveer Gill - a crazed gunman obsessed with goth culture - owned the lives of his...
Silence Broken - A Mother's Reckoning
Films Media Group 394880Sue Klebold, Mother of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold, gives her first television interview nearly...
Aggression: Is Violence Learned?
Films Media Group 394625Do children who watch violent TV shows become violent themselves, or is anyone from any background...
Reaching Out: A Suicide Prevention Workshop
Human Relations Media 600686This video and student manual bring to life a 5-step action plan known as ALGEE developed by The...