Channel: Reveal

Category: News & Politics

Tags: mass shootinggunscolumbineaurorasurvivor

Description: After a mass shooting, the media descends on the survivors. They’re asked time and again what they saw, what they felt and why they think it happened. After the dead are counted and the shooter’s motives are scrutinized, they are left to cope and move on. Heather Martin was a senior at Columbine High School in Colorado when two teenagers shot and killed 12 students and one teacher. More than a decade later, 12 people were killed and dozens more injured in a shooting at an Aurora movie theater, just miles from where Martin lived. To create a space for survivors to talk about their grief and traumatic new realities, Martin co-founded The Rebels Project, a nationwide support network that connects survivors of mass tragedy to help them process their experiences. Martin says she desperately wants the group to stop growing, but every year, more members are joined by tragic circumstances From natural disasters to national tragedies, the media swarms around major stories, hurling those affected into the spotlight. But what happens after the cameras are gone and the country moves on to the next headline? The Aftermath revisits stories that once dominated the news, investigating where people are now and what has happened since, to tell the story after the story. The Glassbreaker Films initiative at The Center for Investigative Reporting aims to support women in documentary filmmaking and investigative journalism. The project is generously funded by the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation. For more on The Aftermath series: revealnews.org/theaftermath