Director Matt McDongough told TheWrap how the outlet’s first in-house, feature-length documentary came to be
NowThis News will air its first fully in-house, feature-length documentary, “Generation Columbine,” on Monday night, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting, but work on the film all began the night of a different school shooting: the one in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
“This all started on February 14, 2018, with a shooting at Parkland. I think it was maybe kind of 11:00 at night, and my boss pointed out at the students that died at Parkland weren’t alive when Columbine happened, and we just spent a few minutes talking about how weird that was for us, you know?” director Matt McDonough explained in a phone call with TheWrap. “We both remember Columbine vividly. Both of us actually were in high school, at that time, so the idea that we’ve lived with this forever but that an entire generation who have grown up with Columbine kind of always in the background and it’s always having been such a prevalent issue that they’re acutely aware of it always being a threat of a school shooting.”
The documentary, airing on Starz, examines the generational trauma of school shootings and features survivors of four school shootings: Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Red Lake Senior High School on the Red Lake Indian Reservation and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
One example of the lifelong struggles associated with school shootings took place over the course of filming the documentary, when Austin Eubanks, a Columbine survivor who was participating in the film, died of an overdose.
“The sad thing is that the thing that I kind of learned through this is that firsthand trauma,” McDonough said. “The entire idea of the film from the start was to tell the story of generational trauma and how it’s a ripple effect, that it’s not just the people who die or their family members who are impacted in each school shooting but entire communities and everyone they touch. And then when things happen later it’s kind of the, you know, unspoken piece of this that they impact people for the rest of their lives and then the people that they touch later in their lives are impacted if anything should happen to them.”
The film premieres Monday on Starz at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Watch an exclusive trailer above, via NowThis News.
5 Times Parkland Shooting Survivors Were Falsely Criticized (Photos)
As the high school students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, have increasingly pushed for change around gun control — most recently in the March for Our Lives events around the country — they’ve become the victims of attacks and conspiracy theories by those who wish to discredit them and their cause. Some of the most vocal figureheads of the movement, David Hogg, 17, and Emma Gonzalez, 18, have largely been the targets of these critiques. These five claims have been debunked as false, but it hasn’t stopped them from widely circulating on social media.
David Hogg is NOT a “crisis actor”
On Feb. 21, a video claiming that David Hogg was a “crisis actor” briefly became the No. 1 Trending video on YouTube. The video included an old clip of Hogg being interviewed by a Los Angeles CBS affiliate, and it was falsely used as evidence that Hogg did not attend Stoneman Douglas as a student but was an actor. YouTube pulled the video later that day, but not before it received over 200,000 views. A separate meme also claimed that Hogg had attended and graduated from a high school in southern California. And other right-wing writers even claimed that Hogg’s media appearances were suspect because his father previously worked for the FBI. Hogg explicitly denied these conspiracy theories.
YouTube
David Hogg WAS on campus at the time of the shooting
An article by Sara Rumpf in RedState questioned whether Hogg was on campus during the shooting. Rumpf noted that Hogg’s comments in a CBS documentary and his quotes from a Vox article contradicted each other and called into question whether he was actually on campus. Hogg was on campus during the shooting and then returned several hours later with a camera to interview students. Rumpf later recanted the original report and apologized, but conservative media host Erick Erickson had latched onto the original story and stood by his criticism calling Hogg “a bully.”
YouTube
Emma Gonzalez did NOT tear up a copy of the Constitution
An animated GIF went viral showing Emma Gonzalez tearing up a copy of the U.S. Constitution. But the image, which was tweeted out by the Twitter feed “Gab” and later by actor Adam Baldwin, was doctored. The original image came from a video from a Teen Vogue photoshoot in which Gonzalez tears up a firing range target.
Teen Vogue Twitter
Emma Gonzalez did NOT “bully” the Parkland shooter
Two conservative blogs, LouderwithCrowder.com and The American Spectator, posted an abbreviated clip of Emma Gonzalez’s remarks at a rally on Feb. 17, claiming that they were “a startling admission” that Gonzalez and others had bullied shooter Nikolas Cruz. “Those talking about how we should have not ostracized him? You didn’t know this kid! OK? We did,” Gonzalez said. But in context, Gonzalez was referring to the fact that school officials were alerted to Cruz’s behavior and mental instability. Another student, Isabelle Robinson, wrote a New York Times op-ed responding to the idea that students needed to be nicer to Cruz. “The idea that we are to blame, even implicitly, for the murders of our friends and teachers is a slap in the face to all Stoneman Douglas victims and survivors.”
CNN
David Hogg did NOT give the Nazi salute
Following his speech at the March for Our Lives rally, an image circulated juxtaposing David Hogg with his arm and fist outstretched with an image of Hitler giving the Nazi salute. “All in favor of gun control, raise your right arm,” the meme reads. Several on social media also drew the comparison, but video shows that Hogg extended his closed fist into the air rather than an open palm facing downward.
Getty Images
Students David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez have been the subject of conspiracy theories, misinformation and doctored images
As the high school students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, have increasingly pushed for change around gun control — most recently in the March for Our Lives events around the country — they’ve become the victims of attacks and conspiracy theories by those who wish to discredit them and their cause. Some of the most vocal figureheads of the movement, David Hogg, 17, and Emma Gonzalez, 18, have largely been the targets of these critiques. These five claims have been debunked as false, but it hasn’t stopped them from widely circulating on social media.
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