‘Newtown’ Director Kim Snyder & Victim’s Dad Mark Barden On Sandy Hook, Gun Control [VIDEO EXCLUSIVE]

On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and fatally shot 20 school children and six adult staff members. Nearly four and a half years later, the story of the grieving Newtown community and the trauma that has affected them is being told in the documentary, Newtown, premiering on PBS tonight, Monday, April 3.

The documentary, directed by Kim Snyder, is not focused on the killer but instead on the emotions of a town in grieving and how that grief permeated into the country at large.

“It takes some time to really look at the aftermath for an entire community and the fallout of gun violence so that we don’t become numb,” Snyder told uInterview in an exclusive video interview.

“We can’t afford to become numb,” Snyder continued, “and I do fear that this is what is happening with the numbers in our country.”

Mark Barden, the father of victim Daniel Barden, who was seven years old when he passed away at Sandy Hook Elementary, also spoke with uInterview exclusively about what he hopes the film will accomplish.

“I hope the viewer takes from this the sense of responsibility and the sense of empowerment that what happened in Newtown to my little Daniel, and what continues to happen across our country, is preventable and that there are ways that we could work together to prevent this from happening again,” Barden said.

Additionally, Barden, who has become a powerful voice in the fight against gun violence, hopes to share the love he had, and still has, for his son.

“[Daniel] doesn’t have his life now to share himself with the world so people will have to learn about him this way and I hope that they do that,” said Barden.

But beyond the initial takeaways the film has to offer, both Barden and Snyder hope that viewers take the film as a catalyst for conversations in their own community about how to prevent gun violence, about how to address those who may commit it, and about the grief that inevitably will follow.

Said Barden, “You can have conversations in your community about how you can address this issue and make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Snyder agrees. “People can start to make their voices heard and have a conversation and find middle ground about whatever needs to happen to address this, not as a polarized political issue but as a public health issue.”

Newtown airs tonight at 9 p.m. EST on PBS.