Favorite Documentary of 2016
“It’s an absolutely stunning film, made with patience, intelligence and sensitivity.”
NY Times Critics Pick
“Its sentiments are clear, underscored with heartache eloquently expressed.”
Top Ten Films of 2016
“A transcendent doc that earns it’s tears fairly.”
“Newtown is an act of
memorialization, a demand that
this most distractible if countries
look close and continue to care.”
“Newtown refutes hopelessness, making its case less with words than with faces it’s impossible to forget.”
“You won’t truly understand gun violence until you see the Newtown documentary.”
“Through Snyder’s lens, you see a town realizing it has a chance to be the one that finally says “enough is enough.”
“Snyder uses her camera as a friendly ear and as an eye to bear witness. It’s a shocking and compelling piece of work.”
“Legislative questions are not addressed, and even the killer’s name is not mentioned. Instead, viewers are given wrenching access to a place that more than three years later continues to grapple with an attack that claimed the lives of 26 victims, many of them small children.”
“Snyder crafts a composite portrait that’s intimate but also humbled and respectful.”
“Kim A. Snyder’s documentary gains access into the lives of families who lost loved ones on that fateful December afternoon. She aims to “tell a story of collective grief” and how communities piece themselves back together after.”
“Newtown emerges as a blistering,
if tacit, indictment of the
nation’s broken promise
to never forget.”
“It is a visceral, powerful experience. You will cry. It is worth it.”
“Elegantly and devastatingly captures the tenor of a town that will carry these scars for a generation. Snyder’s film deserves to be seen.”
“The mass murder of children is not a political issue. It’s a humanitarian issue. This film is a step in the right direction.”
“You will be inspired by the strength and courage of the everyday people you meet in Newtown telling a story, which must be heard.”
“We feel the grief of the people caught in the wake of abject horror, and we shouldn’t be afraid of those kinds of emotional experiences in cinema.”
“A movie that cuts through the layers of cynicism and despair we feel every time we see the coverage of another mass.”
“A breathtaking gut punch. This film is an important historical record, and an important reminder of an event in American history that could have changed everything, that should have changed everything. Newtown is a crucial reminder of that.”
“The film revisits Newtown, Connecticut, three years after those events changed the town and its inhabitants forever, exploring the various ways that survivors have tried to endure, agitate for change, and further the legacies of their lost loved ones.”
“A real-time portrait of a community that’s still figuring out how to heal.”
“Never exploitative and always honest, this is a movie that demands to be seen no matter how badly it hurts.”
“Arguably the most timely festival film this year.”
“Legislative questions are not addressed, and even the killer’s name is not mentioned. Instead, viewers are given wrenching access to a place that more than three years later continues to grapple with an attack that claimed the lives of 26 victims, many of them small children.”
“What may arguably be the most relevant film of Sundance.”
“A harrowing portrait of grief and a call for action that is all too topical.”
“Without being partisan, it sees Snyder capture “the exquisite beauty and inherent terror of parenthood,” with a film that devastates, and proves with its understated, controlled filmmaking, that Snyder could be one of our best documentarians.”
“One documentary attracting a lot of festival buzz is Newtown, which explores the aftermath of the 2012 massacre that left 26 people dead, including 20 school children, in Connecticut.”
“Traces the Connecticut community’s “searing” anguish and plays witness to the victims’ families mostly fruitless pleas for new federal gun measures.”
“Kim A. Snyder, whose Newtown examines the continuing community trauma caused by the 2012 mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Part of Ms. Snyder’s harrowing documentary looks at how little has changed in regard to gun reform.”
“Newtown, which debuts this weekend at Sundance, has what may be the most ambitious score of any movie in the festival: 17 different composers contributed music, all because they were moved by the subject matter.”
“We have two big documentaries playing in the festival that deal with gun control in America. One is Newtown, a U.S. documentary in competition that takes a really personal look at the lives impacted by that tragedy [in Connecticut]. It’s very emotional and very powerful.”
“The documentary’s foundation is formed by the acute emotional response to the event and its ripple effects that will be felt for a lifetime.”
“Newtown bears witness to their profound grief and allows it to reverberate within our collective conscience – exploring what happens to a community after it becomes the epicenter of a national discussion, and what is still left to cope with after the cameras leave”
“Viewers are given a window into the community most affected by the Sandy Hook shooting — parents, teachers, school employees and local law enforcement officers. During the course of the 82-minute-long film, personal narratives come to light as the community continues to suffer over the unthinkable tragedy of that day. “
“Newtown aims to cut through ‘numbness and denial’ surrounding mass shootings”
“The 2016 lineup reflects “diverse backgrounds, places and perspectives”
“President Obama is taking action to keep guns out of the wrong hands and make our communities safer.”
“Kim A. Snyder, whose immigration doc Welcome to Shelbyville aired on Independent Lens in 2011, has been working on a film about the Newtown massacre, with Maria Cuomo Cole (The Invisible War) as producer…”
