Every time Samantha Fuentes enters a room, she looks for the exits. Then, she identifies all the places where a shooter could barge in. It’s a habit she’s developed since two of her classmates were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.
Fuentes had hoped to leave the worst day of her life behind until she was subpoenaed to testify at the shooter’s sentencing trial in 2022.
“Sorry, here’s an obvious question,” Fuentes asked the state prosecutors in a virtual meeting. “[The shooter’s] not going to be there, correct?”
The state prosecutors met her eyes. “No, he will be.” Her heart dropped. Fuentes had months to prepare to testify in front of the shooter. It was the hardest thing she had ever had to do.
Her tear-jerking journey to look her friends’ killer in the eye became the Oscar-nominated short documentary, “Death by Numbers.” Peabody-Award-winning director Kim Snyder helped Fuentes transform her pain into a rally cry for gun violence survivors.
The documentary created a powerful art piece on gun violence that reached the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Snyder sat with film producer Maria Cuomo Cole with Fuentes on Zoom waiting to hear this year’s Oscar-nominated films for best short documentary at 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 23.
The category arrived, and “Death by Numbers” was the first film announced. Excitement flooded the air as Fuentes got overwhelmed with emotion. Snyder and Fuentes then reunited in London and couldn’t stop talking about how to keep the conversation about gun violence going.
“It’s the first film to ever be nominated for an Oscar that’s actually been co-created by a gun violence survivor,” Snyder said. “That’s something we both feel very strongly proud of.”
Snyder brought Fuentes’ words alive in the film. Poems Fuentes wrote during her healing journey became personified with archival, black-and-white footage and a gothic, classical score. A shadow shaped as the grim reaper crawled across the screen as Fuentes recalled when she saw the shooter peeking into her Holocaust Studies class.
Her forward narration describes indescribable anger and grief. Viewers can see Fuentes getting teary-eyed calmly watching the trial.
“Sam was always open to having her most vulnerable moments recorded,” Snyder said. “It was a perfect collaboration where I have a certain amount of experience and craft, and together with her words, we’ve built something powerful.”
The source of Fuente’s pain is rarely mentioned or seen in the documentary. A large black ‘X’ covers the shooter’s face almost every time he’s on screen. Snyder and Fuentes avoided mentioning or showing him unnecessarily to limit his notoriety.
His face only comes into focus when Fuentes delivers her victim impact speech. Families of murdered students sat in the pews as Fuentes approached him dressed in black. She took a deep breath before looking him in the eye.
“Do you remember, after you sprayed my classroom with bullets, standing in the door frame, peering in to see the work you’ve done? Do you remember my little battered, bloody face looking back at you?” Fuentes said. “I could’ve sworn we locked eyes.”
Contrary to most of Fuentes’ speeches in the film, her final one had no visuals. Instead of dramatic music, the silence from the crowd ignited her words. Snyder allowed Fuentes’ rage to speak for itself.
“When she does that speech, she taps into a larger zeitgeist of what’s happening in the world right now, a feeling of people feeling powerless,” Snyder said. “By looking at him and calling him out, he doesn’t matter anymore. Her putting that out into the world is some energetic, hopeful and positive thing.”
The duo works with organizations like the Sandy Hook Promise nonprofit to address escalating gun violence as one of the largest killers in America. They attend international film festivals to promote the film and keep the conversation alive.
“We need to really take in the hundreds and thousands of Snyders that are in cities across America that witness gun violence, lose parents, friends and siblings,” Snyder said. “One of our friends in Chicago said he’s been to more funerals of friends from gun violence than he had been to graduation parties.”
Snyder and Fuentes look to use the bravery from survivors to stand up to hate. Catch them at the Oscars on March 2 bringing the conversation about gun violence to the golden carpet.