by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman goes on a journey to recover the lives of young children lost in mass shootings in the documentary, All the Empty Rooms.
Steve Hartman, the veteran CBS reporter known for his human-interest features that typically close out evening broadcasts, has built a reputation for ending the news day with stories of kindness, hope, and redemption. Yet after years of telling uplifting tales following bleak headlines, Hartman faced a turning point. When asked to cover yet another mass shooting, he chose not to “spin” the tragedy but to respond differently.
For seven years following the Columbine High School massacre, Hartman, alongside photographer Lou Bopp, traveled across the nation on an extraordinary project: photographing the bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. These preserved spaces, frozen in the ordinary rhythms of interrupted lives, reveal the magnitude of loss more profoundly than words ever could.
Directed by Joshua Seftel, All the Empty Rooms is a tender, haunting, and deeply moving short documentary chronicling the culmination of Hartman’s mission. The film focuses on the final four rooms photographed those of Gracie Muehlberger, Dominic Blackwell, Jackie Cazares, and Hallie Scruggs. Through these final portraits, Seftel captures not only the completion of Hartman’s journey but also the emotional toll and quiet reverence embedded in it.
What began as a personal act of empathy evolved into both a national news feature and a deeply purposeful documentary. “It seemed to me the country had grown numb, lost its empathy for the victims and the families. And I wanted to do something,” Hartman explains. And do something he did.
Hartman’s on-the-road interviews give the film its emotional resonance. He sits with grieving parents and siblings who share their memories, home videos, and the stories of everyday life before and after tragedy. Bopp, meanwhile, translates that grief into visual poetry. His camera roams the stillness of bedrooms, lingering on stacks of schoolbooks, unmade beds, stuffed animals, and forgotten trophies. Widely angled shots evoke absence, while his meticulous close-ups capture the essence of those who once filled these spaces with laughter and life.
All the Empty Rooms covers only the final four of the 225 rooms Hartman and Bopp visited. Nearing the project’s conclusion, both men recognized the broader significance of their work and sought the network’s support to document it. CBS agreed, and the resulting short film was picked up by Netflix even before it aired on CBS Sunday Morning on November 11, 2024, bringing their quiet mission to a global audience.
Rated PG-13 for brief language, All the Empty Rooms stands apart from most documentaries on gun violence. It avoids political commentary and resists moralizing. Instead, it accomplishes exactly what Hartman intended: to remind viewers of the human cost behind the headlines and to rekindle empathy in a culture that too often turns away.
All the Empty Rooms can be seen on Netflix starting December 1, 2025.
Grade: B