DeKalb Elementary
2017 · 21m · Estados Unidos
Directed by Reed Van Dyk
Tones: contemplative, tense
Inspired by a real 911 call that took place during a school shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, this short narrates a moment between two strangers.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects a school shooting short to be cathartic or accusatory, and Van Dyk just... refuses—he locks you in a 911 call between two people who don't know each other, no resolution, no sermon. It's almost boring in how much it respects the unbearable ordinariness of crisis.
A formally precise chamber piece that inherits the tradition of constraint-driven drama—two voices, one space, real time—executed with the kind of editorial restraint and tonal control that recalls telephone plays and radio work; the decision to stage a national trauma through bureaucratic procedure is both structurally elegant and deeply unsettling.
The entire film hinges on the sound design and the performances' micro-hesitations—the choice to let silence and breath do the heavy lifting instead of swelling strings—and it's that discipline with the audio palette that makes a 21-minute phone call feel like watching someone's hands shake.