More than 1,600 school shootings have occurred in the United States since 1970. They have left nearly 600 people dead and nearly three times as many injured. Behind these killings, there are hidden victims: the fathers and mothers of the shooters. Three of them speak on screen in parents of killersdocumentary with a shocking title, but in a delicate way presented next week on ICI RDI.
Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.
The perpetrators of mass killings are named less and less in order to avoid any form of glorification and to focus instead on the victims and their families. Documentary filmmakers Frida and Lasse Barkfors dare to turn their gaze to people intimately linked to the shootings, but who generally remain in the shadows: the parents of the killers.
Those of the teenager who killed four Michigan students in November have been charged with manslaughter for letting their son use a gun they gave him. A rare accusation in such circumstances.
Those who speak in parents of killers have not been held responsible by the courts for their child’s actions. This weight, they still put it on their shoulders. It is part of the heartbreaking emotions that they experience for not having sensed that their child had a desire to kill: guilt, a feeling of failure and, when the shooter kills himself, mourning.
Sue Klebold, the mother of one of the perpetrators of the Columbine massacre in 1999, sums it up bluntly. When she learned that her son had committed a premeditated act, everything she believed in disappeared.
“The person I thought I was has ceased to exist,” adds the white-haired woman, who until then thought she had been a good mother and had instilled good values in her children.
parents of killers does not seek to portray these fathers and mother as victims. Or very little. Especially listening to them recount their pain, especially the concern when they learned that a shooting had taken place at their child’s school, like any parent, and their disbelief when it was confirmed to them that it was their son who had sown death around him. None had seen the tragedy coming. Each of them still blames himself, even decades later.
Frida and Lasse Barkfors’ documentary advances with great finesse in these tragedies, recounting the family contexts of each one, what these teenagers have experienced, but without ever excusing anything. He lets Jeff Williams expose the abuse experienced by his son at school and Clarence Elliot talk about the bullying experienced by his. Without implying that these explanations justify their gesture.
It also lifts the veil on the treatment reserved for the parents of these teenagers: some were chased by the media, another was downright the victim of repeated harassment in the corner of California where he lived. It also shows the strength of parental love, how it is possible to support a son who has committed an act that we find horrifying.
The authors of the mass killings are named less and less. In parents of killers, we hear them repeatedly. Yes, it gives back a part of humanity to these young men. It also highlights the immensity of the drama experienced by these fathers and mothers who raised children hoping that they would become good people. Especially not assassins.
Tuesday, April 19, 8 p.m. 10 p.m.on ICI RDI