Every year, thousands of people are killed by guns in America. Each shooting devastates and forever changes the victim’s family and friends. Behind the Bullet explores a side of gun violence that’s rarely talked about – the impact a shooting has on the shooter. Four individuals share how the pull of a trigger changed them emotionally, physically, psychologically, and spiritually. They describe the conflicting emotions and moral injury that comes after a self-defense, accidental, or unintentional shooting, offering a new and unbiased perspective on gun violence.
Film Specifications
- Documentary Feature
- 1 hour 24 Minutes
- United States Canada
- Filmed in United States
- Languages: English
- Screening Date – Sat June 8, 2019
- Time – 9:30pm
- Location – AMC Empire 25
Director Heidi Yewman
Heidi’s passion for gun violence prevention began in 1999 when her former basketball coach and teacher, Dave Sanders was killed in the Columbine High School massacre along with 12 students. Heidi is a graduate of Columbine.
In 2009 she wrote the book, Beyond the Bullet: Personal Stories of Gun Violence Aftermath, profiling 19 people forever altered by the impact of gun violence.
She is a tireless advocate for gun safety, sitting on the boards of The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Women Donors Network, Stop our Shootings, and Trauma Intervention Program of Portland, OR. Heidi’s vast experience working with trauma victims, advocating for gun violence solutions, and community organizing has inspired her to find unique ways to look at gun violence which creates a more meaningful dialog.
Heidi has been published in USA Today, Ms. Magazine, The Seattle Times, The Oregonian and the Columbian. Heidi’s four-part series, My Month With a Gun was published in The Denver Post, Ms. Magazine and The Daily Beast.
Heidi is currently directing and producing her first feature film, Behind the Bullet, a film about four people who’ve shot and killed someone and how they live with it.
Director’s Statement
I made Behind the Bullet because I wanted to know what it feels like to be the “good guy with a gun.”
I wanted to look at gun violence from a different angle. I wanted to get past the hyperbole and the entrenched arguments and instead explore a viewpoint nobody thinks about: what happens when you use a gun for the purpose that it’s designed for – to shoot someone.
The Columbine High School 1999 massacre is where it all began for me. I graduated from Columbine 13 years before the shooting and one of the victims was my former basketball coach Dave Sanders. As I sat at his memorial service watching my traumatized teachers weeping, one of the speakers said, “We can’t control what happens. But we can control how we respond.”
After that, I got active.
I wrote a book Beyond the Bullet about 19 people who were shot and how it affected them and their families. As I wrote the book I started to think about the people who pulled the triggers; the people who were behind those bullets.
That led me to write a four-piece series for Ms. Magazine, My Month With a Gun where I carried a 9mm Glock with me everywhere I went so I could experience the emotional and physical ramifications of always being prepared to defend myself and my family from a bad guy.
That experience evolved into Behind the Bullet. The four stories in my documentary focus on common gun violence situations – suicide, accidental child shootings, street crime, and the widespread fear of a home invasions.
Behind the Bullet provides a different perspective on gun violence. Some of the stories came from an NRA Website, where they’re heralded as success stories – people who’d heroically upheld the Second Amendment by defending themselves and their families. The PTSD and moral injury that ensues even when the shooting was justified or deemed unintentional under American law is surprising. As the interviews unfold it becomes apparent that the shooters suffer profound anguish, and the reality of being the “good guy with a gun” in America comes into focus.
Film Credits
- Heidi Yewman, Director
- Heidi Yewman, Writer
- Skye Fitzgerald, Producer
