The Hop Brook Community Club will be showing the documentary HEAR ME at Tyringham Town Hall (116 Main Street) this Thursday, October 17, at 5:30 p.m. The 50-minute film, directed by Dave Simonds and produced by Jenny Herzog, features seven young people from Berkshire County who have been impacted by gun violence. Following the screening, a panel of local experts will address gun violence in Berkshire County, discuss root causes, and point to public health models that have proven effective in reducing shootings in other cities.
“The film explores root causes, health disparities, stories of impact, and a way forward-—through the voices of experts,” explains Jenny Herzog of Chaos Theory, a local nonprofit that uses the arts to connect community members who have been impacted by the cycle of violence with stakeholders, policy makers, and the public. “We believe the arts are uniquely positioned to facilitate reflection and engagement, shift hearts and minds, raise awareness, dismantle deeply entrenched stigma, and inspire vital public dialogue—led by the true experts: those who have lived it,” she states.
“There are realities we don’t think of existing here in the Berkshires,” Herzog stresses, but they do exist, and they disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color. She further explains, “Ghost guns (bought and sold illegally, with no serial numbers and no tracking) have become much more prevalent. Some kids see them often and know they’re there. The national dialogue, focused mainly on background checks, fails to protect young people impacted by the flow of ghost guns.” She produced the documentary to bring awareness to their realities and create a sense of urgency around how community members can help.
The statistics are numbing. Less than one percent of deaths caused by firearms in the U.S. are a result of mass shootings—54 percent are by suicide and 43 percent are by homicide. Gun violence remains the leading cause of death for children and teens in our country. For young black males, it is not only the leading cause, but ranks higher than the next nine causes of death combined. “We can’t deny the racial disparities of gun violence,” Herzog maintains, “or how it funnels young men, and particularly young men of color, into the criminal justice system. One in three black boys born today can expect to spend time in prison, as compared to one in six Latino and one in 17 white.”
“What’s been startling to me is that the stories have so many parallels,” she shares. Of the 20 students (ranging in age from 10 to 23) that she interviewed across two different film projects, there were “so many similarities.” This awareness made her more committed to calling attention to the intergenerational trauma caused by housing insecurity, incarceration, PTSD, trauma, and substance abuse and how those impacted by gun violence often exist at the convergence of multiple health disparities. “These systemic problems disproportionately impact young people of color—and the problems are only growing worse,” she warns, adding “The health disparities and inequities are grounded in history and are still with us today.” The poverty rate in West Pittsfield, for example, has quadrupled in the last 20 years.
Her goal in making the film was to bring attention to the root causes of gun violence and present some of the public health models that have been effective in addressing the issue. “We have a chance to bring people together to hear directly from young people who have been impacted, and to advocate for the implementation of more effective gun violence prevention models locally. We need to ask the harder questions–why do some young people feel they need guns in the first place?” Herzog has partnered with Michael Obasohan (Chief Diversity Officer for the City of Pittsfield) and Ben Snyder (a Williams College Professor who worked on violence prevention in Baltimore) to advocate for the implementation of public health approaches to gun violence prevention that have proven effective in reducing shootings in other cities. “The models are there. The real work is bringing people together to figure out how to implement them,” she points out.
This screening is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. While the film has been shown in Pittsfield and Springfield, this is the first screening in South County. Community members are urged to attend in order to help lead the way forward in reimagining what is possible and to work with local stakeholders, policy makers, and experts to find new ways of innovating the system so we can pave a better way for young people in our community.