Director Emil Gallardo takes us inside a school shooting in his short film 1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me. The day starts normally with teacher, Ms. Leena (Farelle Walker), guiding her elementary school class in making drawings of each other. She sees a young man running outside and then watches as he and another man unload weapons from bags. The film captures a first-person perspective of the event, immersing the viewer in the terror of the children and their teacher as she tries to hold it together for them.
In June of 2020, Gallardo was selected by HBO for their Directing Fellowship. He is a Mexican-American from Los Angeles who has worked in the industry in various roles but is now seeking to focus on writing and directing. His concentration is on difficult subjects, such as the school shooting scenario depicted in this film.
“…then watches as he and another man unload weapons from bags.”
Emil explains his intent in his director’s statement: My mom was a teacher for 30 years, and watching her over the course of her career created a deep respect for what teachers do and the amount of themselves they give to their students. In addition to shrinking budgets and greater workloads, teachers nowadays also have to prepare their classes to hide or flee from the real possibility of being harmed in their classrooms… I made this film to illustrate how incredible these people are and how much they need our help to put an end to this violence.
1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me is not a comfortable film to watch. Farelle Walker does the heavy lifting as the teacher, and she gives a beautiful performance. The horror of depicting what this violent event must look like is sickening, but it’s very well done here and can serve to raise awareness of what is needed to stop these attacks from happening.
1, 2, 3, All Eyes On Me screened at the 2020 Hollyshorts Film Festival
"…director Emil Gallardo takes us inside a school shooting..."
This was AMAZING! Brilliantly depicted and Beautifully infectious
Why is it so short, legit someone tell this director to make a full movie this was an amazing short lived movie that has people just as upset that it ended as they where when there heart was pounding for those kids and teacher… raise more awareness by making a actual movie. Show why they did it or how they get rescued or cault…. clearly can’t show kids getting shot up (god bless) but this is amazing and it saddens n let’s me down to see it turned into a 10 min short story when this thing is bigger than that. And you are the only director that can clearly show that. Soooo let’s make it happen! Emil G
Very powerful. I was glad it was a short because I did not think I could bare watching this for an hour or more. Unfortunately these events are not confined to movies. God help us. Very well done.
Every American should HAVE watch this, then gun companies will lose their power and start to be accountable for the murders the devices they manufacture create. Only one day when a gun manufacturer CEO’s children will be held at gunpoint and shot, will the bribes and money to keep automatic weapons in American’s hands stop…
Do what Australia did, get the results Australia has. Ban Automatic weapons for civilians other than in specialty gun ranges, and purposes.