what is the documentary all the empty rooms about

“All the Empty Rooms” is a short documentary about the bedrooms left behind by children who were killed in school shootings in the United States, and the families who still live with their absence.

At its core, the film follows CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp on a multi‑year journey across the country as they visit and document these untouched “empty rooms.” Each bedroom becomes a kind of quiet memorial, showing toys, posters, clothes, and small personal items frozen in time from the day the child left for school and never came back. Rather than focusing on the shooters or policy debates, the documentary centers the grief, memories, and daily reality of the parents and siblings who still live in these homes, exploring absence, love, and the long shadow of America’s gun violence epidemic.

The film is directed and produced by Joshua Seftel, runs around 30–35 minutes, and is distributed globally by Netflix, where it debuted on December 1, 2025. It has been widely described as emotionally powerful and meditative, and it went on to be nominated for—and, according to recent coverage, win—the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film.