A documentary that will leave you shocked
If you don't need Christmas-themed television this holiday season, and even appreciate a break from the sound of sleigh bells, HBO has a documentary that will radically transport you to another reality. And not a bucolic one. It's titled Thoughts and prayers. Oro how to survive an active shooter in AmericaIn Spanish it has been translated as I share your feelings. And what you'll see will leave you appalled. The documentary begins with a casting call where some salespeople enthusiastically present all sorts of gadgets designed for personal protection: armored shutters, tables and whiteboards that transform into shields, robots that attack strangers, alarm systems, devices to lock doors or immobilize people...
Thoughts and prayers It speaks to us about school and college shootings in the United States from a very different and radically critical perspective. It shows us the system that has been organized around the supposed prevention of attacks. From early childhood education to the university level, the documentary exposes the absurdity of the programs to which several generations of students and teachers are being subjected. From terrifying drills to courses on how to shoot guns.
The documentary maintains such a cold and clinical narrative tone that there isn't even a voice-over to serve as a connecting thread. We move from one circumstance to another, each more brutal and delusional, in order to denounce the abundance of these programs. Witnesses speak directly to the camera, and during training exercises, the participants act oblivious to being recorded. The absence of narration conveys a much harsher account and helps to explain the situation of helplessness and cruelty to which tens of thousands of children and teenagers are subjected. Some admit the anxiety that the drills provoke in them, because they anticipate the fear of attacks. Just look at the children's faces during the filming. They live in a constant state of alert, fearing that the moment will come.
The documentary highlights the industry and business that has sprung up around the terror of school shootings. They exploit supposed statistical risk data in the United States to create a whole apparatus around the supposed need for prevention. Programs and courses organized by retired police officers with an aggressive demeanor recommend morbid and horrifying drills. There are companies that manufacture silicone replicas of pediatric bullet wounds, as if they were special effects in a movie. They attach them to the bodies of minors, as if they were real, and the children have to pretend to be dead and disemboweled while the rest of their classmates run through the hallways.
Thoughts and prayers It alerts us, solely through the distant observation of the camera, to the trauma being inflicted on tens of thousands of children. If you were already aware of how rights and freedoms in the US are at risk, this documentary is enough to demonstrate the extent to which this society is losing its common sense in the name of security.