+
upworthy
Pop Culture

This silent animated short film captures a parent's grief after a school shooting

"If anything happens, I love you."

robb elementary, gun violence, if anything happens I love you

A film from 2020 still rings true.

In her book “Atlas of the Heart,” researcher and public speaker Brené Brown defines anguish as “a mix of shock, incredulity, grief, and powerlessness.” She adds that the feeling of powerlessness is particularly painful.

After yet another school shooting, this is the raw emotional space that many Americans find themselves in.

Whether directly impacted, scrolling through tragic headlines or perhaps even wondering when your own loved one will pop up in the casualties, there’s an undeniable sense of collective helplessness. Pleas and protests for more gun safety laws that go unanswered only exacerbate the unease. When it feels like things will never change, we find ourselves once again asking: What to do with all this rage, sadness, frustration and heartbreak?

Though originally released on Netflix in 2020, the animated short film “If Anything Happens I Love You” explores this particular kind of grief in a way that still feels poignant and timely. And sometimes, when we have no earthly idea how to understand our difficult emotions, let alone act on them, art can be a valuable place to start.

The Academy Award winning short, directed by Will McCormack and Michael Govier, tells the story of two parents mourning the loss of their daughter, a victim of a school shooting. You can watch the trailer below:

Govier explained in an interview with Salon that the filmmakers wanted to focus on what “grief and loss really look like” for a parent under these horrific circumstances, rather than the typical, sterile news cycle narratives.

There is no dialogue throughout the entire 12 minutes. Yet through touching music, sparing use of color (the film is mostly in black and white) and characterized shadows, the audience becomes immersed in the full spectrum of each parent’s emotions. The love, the fear, the longing, the regret. All of it.

McCormack added that though the piece centers around parents immediately affected by a school shooting, the message is universal.

“Gun violence is not indiscriminate,” he told Salon. “It's not someone else's problem, it's everyone's problem. It happens in schools, it happens in grocery stores, it happens everywhere … This is something that affects everyone in all walks of life now, so we felt drawn to write about it.”

One thing becomes painfully clear by the end of the short film: The mother and father are in so much agony that they are disconnected from anything in the outside world, even each other. They share dinners in silence as their shadow counterparts fight with one another, then go off into their own private worlds to be alone in their despair.

It isn’t until the spirit of their daughter urges them to rekindle their connection that they can once again embrace one another. It seems like a gentle reminder that to create lasting change, more compassion is needed. If we don't connect with each other on a human level, history is bound to repeat itself.

Grief isn’t easy. But art can at least help us make the pain inside a bit more tangible, which can lead to more inspired action.

If you’d like to watch the full film (I highly recommend it), you can still find it on Netflix.

Family

Mom calls out teacher who gave her son a 'zero' grade for not providing class with supplies

Her viral video sparked a debate as to whether or not providing school supplies should be mandatory for parents.

@shanittanicole/TikTok

A zero grade for not providing school supplies?

The debate as to whether or not parents should supply classroom supplies is not new. But as prices continue to rise, parents are growing more baffled as to how they can be expected by teachers to provide all the various glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers and other various items the incoming students might need.

What’s even more perplexing, however, is penalizing the children of parents who won’t (or can’t) provide them.

This was the case for Shanitta Nicole, who discovered her son received a zero grade in his new school for not bringing school supplies for the entire classroom.
Keep ReadingShow less
via Pexels

Millennials are now old enough to seriously reflect on life.

It seems like only yesterday a millennial was a college kid that baby boomers chided for being entitled and Gen Xers thought were way too sincere and needed to learn how to take a joke. Today, the oldest millennials, those born around 1980, have hit their 40s and have lived long enough to have some serious regrets.

They also have enough experience to take some pride in decisions that, in hindsight, were the right moves.

The good news is that at 40 there is still plenty of time to learn from our successes and failures to set ourselves up for a great second half of life. These lessons are also valuable to the Gen Zers coming up who can avoid the pitfalls of the older generation.

A Reddit user who has since deleted their profile asked millennials nearing 40 “what were your biggest mistakes at this point in life?” and they received more than 2,200 responses. The biggest regrets these millennials have are being flippant about their health and not saving enough money when they were younger.

Keep ReadingShow less


Time travel back to 1905.

Back in 1905, a book called "The Apples of New York" was published by the New York State Department of Agriculture. It featured hundreds of apple varieties of all shapes, colors, and sizes, including Thomas Jefferson's personal favorite, the Esopus Spitzenburg.






Keep ReadingShow less
via Wikimedia Commons and Jerry Woody/Wikimedia Commons

Two Victoria gentleman and a shilling from 1894.

If you had a time machine and woke up in Victorian-era London (1837-1901), you would have difficulty breathing because of the air quality. You'd also walk around plugging your nose because of the poor sanitation and probably be very confused when purchasing anything because of the monetary system.

J. Draper, a London historian and tour guide, explained why money was so different in the Victorian era in a popular YouTube video with nearly 300,000 views. “Let me try and explain how pounds, shillings and pence worked,” J Draper opens her video.

Keep ReadingShow less

Man hears stepdaughter call him "Dad" for the first time.

Being a parent is often a thankless job, and being a stepparent is usually even more thankless. But most parents show up and do their best to make sure their kids have what they need and feel loved. So when our kids do or say something to show appreciation, it melts our hearts—but nothing melts it faster than a stepchild calling their bonus parent "Mom" or "Dad" for the first time.

A creator named Shane posted a clip from a longer video showing his reaction to hearing his stepdaughter call him "Dad" for the first time. The full video is about three years old, but when it was reposted as a clip recently, it pulled on everyone's heartstrings.

Shane and his wife, Liana, run the social media pages Shane and Liana where they post silly videos pranking each other. But this video wasn't a prank. His stepdaughter, London, wanted to surprise him after wanting to call him "Dad" for a long time.

Keep ReadingShow less

Dog refuses to walk with Mom, but her legs work with Grandma.

What gives dogs the right to have such big and hilarious personalities? It seems like these dogs have found a way to make their humans laugh while also annoying them until they're ready to come apart. It's truly a skill that only dogs and toddlers seem to possess in great quantities.

Zoe is a pit bull with a bombastic side-eye that makes it clear that she only tolerates her mother, Raven, but adores her grandmother, Yonika. There is no confusion about who her favorite person is, and Zoe's grandmother only seems to encourage the behavior. The two of them are the best of friends, and Mom...well, she's the third wheel.

Sure, Zoe likes her mom a little—she does feed her, after all—but the verdict is still being determined if love can be claimed. Raven can't even convince the sassy pittie to go on a walk with her.

Keep ReadingShow less