A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent known for his upbeat, life-affirming stories. But how do you do that job when your bosses send you to cover communities affected by school shootings?
STEVE HARTMAN: They used to call on me to do something - this is going to sound crazy - but kind of uplifting, restore people's faith in humanity, I guess, maybe find the hero teacher or the community coming together, something like that. And I kind of got tired of it.
MARTÍNEZ: So Steve Hartman started his own project. He waited until long after the shootings, then he asked the families of children killed by gunfire to allow a photographer to take pictures of their kids' undisturbed bedrooms.
HARTMAN: It was a huge ask because these bedrooms - they're sacred spaces.
MARTÍNEZ: Those photographs are the basis for a new documentary on Netflix called "All The Empty Rooms."
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS")
HARTMAN: Thanks for taking my call. What I'd like to do is come with Lou Bopp, photographer, and just let Lou take pictures of the room as it was and try to capture Hallie through those pictures.
SCRUGGS: If you like, we would like to share her.
HARTMAN: Yeah.
SCRUGGS: Just to tell you this, I think we're also nervous.
HARTMAN: Yeah. I'm nervous, too.
I got many replies. Some said we're not ready or, you know, it's too personal, but a handful agreed and wanted us to come. But so often, I have learned after some time has passed, and the rest of the world has moved on to other stories, the parents want their child remembered, and we were offering a chance to remind the country of who these kids were, and parents were willing.
MARTÍNEZ: When it comes to the bedrooms, why did they decide to keep these bedrooms preserved?
HARTMAN: I sometimes feel like closing up the bedrooms and repurposing the rooms is almost like another stage of grief that a lot of parents just aren't ready to tackle. The rooms are a source of comfort. But they're also a bit of an albatross because some parents feel like they'd like to maybe move to a different city, but they can't because they just can't pack up that room.
MARTÍNEZ: One mother says that she goes into her child's room every day.
HARTMAN: Many of them go in every single day. Some sit in a chair beside the bed and talk to their child.
MARTÍNEZ: A few of the families mentioned smell. They wanted to keep the smell of their kids around. I had to smile at one of them when she said that she did the laundry because kids smell, right? They smell...
HARTMAN: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Sometimes in bad ways.
HARTMAN: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We washed his Chonies and his socks 'cause I thought that was gross (laughter).
HARTMAN: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: His underwear and his socks I pulled out and washed, but everything else is how it was almost five years ago, his dirty clothes. I don't think we wanted to lose his smell in his room 'cause it's distinctly him.
HARTMAN: That was a parent from the Saugus High School shooting in California. I think sometimes even a bad smell becomes a good smell when it's all you have.
MARTÍNEZ: What kind of things was your photographer focusing on? How did he approach his side of this assignment?
HARTMAN: Every time he went into a room, there was a certain reverence there - would not open a drawer, would not move anything. And he was looking for things that kind of define that child. It might be a memento from a trip, library book that never got returned. But he also found little details, like one of the pictures that struck me most was a toothpaste tube with the cap open. I can so imagine that kid brushing their teeth that morning, fully expecting that they would come back and maybe close that lid, you know, that night. And there's just so many signs of the life cut short and how quickly it was extinguished.
MARTÍNEZ: When I was watching your documentary, Steve, I saw you in Uvalde. I went to Uvalde the night that the shooting happened to cover it. I've never felt suffocated out in fresh air like I felt in Uvalde. It was a feeling that I'll never forget, and I hope I never, ever have to feel that ever again.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: This is her room.
HARTMAN: Love the lights.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: She loved the lights.
HARTMAN: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: And they've actually been on since she left them on. We haven't turned them off.
MARTÍNEZ: That family, the Cazares family, I remember standing near them during a vigil. When you spoke to them, the Cazares family, what did they tell you in terms of how the rest of Uvalde is coping with this, now three years later?
HARTMAN: Well, that was such a small community and such a traumatic major event that I don't think they're too much better now than they were when you were there. That said, you go into a family and meet the Cazares' and there is room for laughter now.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: And the stuffed animals, I think it's just these two that have her voice in it, right?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: That's the video where she was outside with the dog.
HARTMAN: There's been some softening there, but it's going to be a long, long while before that community has fully healed, if ever.
MARTÍNEZ: The last thing you say in this documentary is, I wish that we could transport all Americans to stand in one of those bedrooms for just a few minutes. We'd be a different America. Steve, you mentioned how you were the find the positive angle guy for a long time. To me, this statement does still ring true to who you are because it is a very optimistic statement.
HARTMAN: Thanks for saying that because I do feel like the film is optimistic. But it does - it is going to take people to be a little vulnerable and to watch the film. Because I do believe that - I do believe that if we stand in their rooms, if we look around, that maybe we can make a difference. And that is a new feeling for me. When I started this project, I did not have a great deal of hope. But with the momentum that the film has now, I feel like maybe there is a chance if we just get folks to stand in the rooms.
MARTÍNEZ: That's CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman. His new documentary is called "All The Empty Rooms." It is streaming on Netflix. Steve, thank you.
HARTMAN: Thank you.
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