Kim A. Snyder directed the Peabody Award–winning documentary “Newtown,” which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival before screening at festivals worldwide, being released theatrically, and airing nationally on PBS’s “Independent Lens” and on Netflix. Her Netflix Originals short, “Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane,” premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded Best Documentary Short and a Grierson Award nomination. Snyder’s previous works include “Welcome to Shelbyville,” “I Remember Me,” and over a dozen short documentaries.

“Us Kids” premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 25.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

KS: “Us Kids” is a coming-of-age story about a bunch of regular teenage kids who live their lives against the backdrop of this horrendous national issue of gun violence. The film begins with the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on Valentine’s Day 2018, initially through the lens of Samantha Fuentes, who was shot in her Holocaust Studies class with an AR15 by a classmate. In the wake of the tragedy, she — and many others — are inspired to take action.

For these kids, whose friends and classmates died, it was a catalyst. The story is born out of trauma and rage, which simmers throughout, and it serves as a window into this generation and movement that is so different from, but also has so much in common with, the Vietnam era and the Civil Rights movement.

These kids have to grow up so quickly, and their willingness to give up everything to fight for those who were lost, and their tenacity, makes them able to build a remarkable and unprecedented movement — and create something real and lasting.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

KS: It was by happenstance I came to this story; I was pursuing a different project in Florida at the time and ended up in Tallahassee the week that the Parkland shooting happened. After making “Newtown,” I had been feeling that the nation hadn’t reckoned with the hundreds of thousands of traumatized youth, this generation of kids who are terrified. So when I found myself on the steps of the capital in Tallahassee, and all these kids arrived by the busloads saying a version of this, and I was there with a camera, I realized I had to start filming.

It also was a story I could never tell with my prior film, “Newtown,” because in Newtown they were first graders, and we were telling the story of what a town looks like in the wake of tragedy, and about the parents and their enormous loss.

“Us Kids” is from the point of view of the kids themselves. It is about their rage and grief.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

KS: This film is meant to inspire and mobilize. It’s important to say that we made a very deliberate choice to have no adult main characters. You hardly see adults talking. We wanted to make this the voice of youth — it’s their story, not mine. These kids don’t want pity or guilt. They don’t want us to cry. They just want us to get up and work with them, and stand beside them in this fight.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

KS: In terms of filming, we worked very hard to honor and capture what the kids themselves wanted to say about this incredible thing they were building, and represent the myriad of voices involved. The two most recognizable kids from the movement, Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, didn’t want to be the faces of this activism, so they had an earnest mission to have the cameras turn outward. Mass shootings represent less than two percent of shootings. They understood how important it was for them to get the media to focus on gun violence in the individual cities that we were rolling through on the Road for Change bus tour, which the film chronicles. So while organizing, they recruited new team members from around the country from all backgrounds and experiences, and they wouldn’t talk to local news alone. We wanted to respect that mission and made sure this film reflected those values.

In editing, the biggest challenge was balancing the two elements — the movement’s rise, and the lasting trauma of gun violence on America’s youth. This film isn’t only the story of March for Our Lives. The through-line of trauma was indispensable to crafting something that was intimate and character-based. Samantha Fuentes, who was shot in her class, became the heart and bedrock in that sense. Samantha’s a rock star.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

KS: It has been a two year journey of truly independent producing together with my two amazing producing partners, Maria Cuomo Cole and Lori Cheatle. We had enormous help from Sundance Institute’s Catalyst program, and we built on the support from our prior film with some of the same partners and executive producers. We’ve had an amazing group of partners with Impact Partners at the helm, Park Pictures and World of Ha. Hunting Lane was there early and gave us our beginning support and added access.

We made a deliberate choice to try and keep control of the project through a hybrid model of equity investors and grants.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

KS: My father was an artist and my own direction went toward storytelling. I love documentary, but was inspired as a young girl by a whole range of mostly non-American narrative filmmakers, ranging from Peter Weir to Nicolas Roeg, to Ingmar Bergman and Jane Campion. Later, I loved so many American films from when I was coming of age — like David Lean, Alan J. Pakula, and Blake Edwards.

W&H: What’s the best advice you’ve received?

KS: Ignore the hype. The hardest thing is to know when you have finished. Lean into your obsessions.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

KS: Find support in other strong women — funders among them — and defy the sometimes over-determined humility that is often so ingrained in our experiences and socializing.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

KS: It’s hard to name one, but one that comes to mind from my youth is “My Brilliant Career,” directed by Gillian Armstrong, for its thematic references and sheer beauty. I also love Sally Potter’s “Orlando,” which was so ahead of its time, and Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” for defying what so much of the public had pigeonholed as “chick flicks.”

W&H: What differences have you noticed in the industry since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?

KS: I’ve noticed a general boldness, and a fierce “don’t fuck with us” mentality. More opportunities born out of powerful women aligning around new funding models, and badass trailblazers like Reese Witherspoon illustrating what so many women have always been — multi-skilled and versatile.