On December 14, 2012, a formerly unthinkable tragedy befell Sandy Hook Elementary School and Newtown, Connecticut. In the years since, director Kim A. Snyder has documented the impact of the mass shooting on the bereaved community in a convictive and sensitive treatment. Newtown provides accounts from survivors, witnesses, and parents of Sandy Hook students, revealing the depths of their sorrow and a shared, unabated grief. Focusing primarily on three families, the film deftly explores instead of exhumes, and sows empathy instead of extremism. The still-inconceivable event, and the dumbfounding details of its immediate aftermath—classroom triage, the chaotic and anguishing notification process, a staggering twenty-six funerals—are recounted by subjects for whom the recent past is ever-present. Harrowing in subject, yet mercifully restrained in tone, Newtown wrings illumination from a dark day, seeking and finding solace in the memories from the time preceding the tragedy.  TM