A documentary that is told from our perspective for the first time. The difficulties of healing from such a traumatic event have shaped the paths of our lives. We still require plenty of healing, therapy and counseling. This will be a journey to find a solution for those who still struggle everyday. This documentary isn't just a message, it's a movement. Eventually, we will have to raise about $200,000 to complete the documentary but we are hoping to collect $5,000-$10,000 to make a trailer that will help raise the renaming funds. A brief insight of my experience: April 20, 1999, a junior at Columbine High School and 17 years old, I was having lunch in the cafeteria when the shootings began. I spent nearly 3 hours with 17 people trapped in a kitchen office without a lock on the door. The sounds of pipe bombs, shotguns and violent silences filled the air along with the smell of gun resin and smoke. Eventually, we were rescued by SWAT team members and escaped through a broken window in an adjacent room. We ran past pools of blood and dead bodies as we were moved to safety by police officers and firemen. The next several eternal hours were spent finding and reuniting with friends and putting the pieces together. What we discovered, as the night approached, was that some of our closest friends never made it out. Those left behind would lay lifeless on school grounds for the next few days while the authorities investigated the massacre. Followed by a blur of back-to-back funerals, drained emotions and media frenzies, we struggled for normalcy. Many came to help, some came to take advantage and others began to rebuild. We were told along the way that counseling would be available to us for whenever we needed, for as long as we needed, free of charge. Perhaps our teenager minds were not yet ready to know what we wanted to get out of therapy or how to deal with the very adult emotions that plagued us. For me, the idea of counseling and therapy was new and uncomfortable. I wasn't ready. Now that I am older and have a more clear goal of what I want to get out of counseling, the funds have disappeared and I am left alone. The situation now: There are several hundred of us left in the position to deal with this trauma on a daily basis without any resources. We have become our own therapists over the years and we need a better solution. This documentary can be a foundation to someday build a better system not just for us, but for anyone and every one who has been witness to a traumatic event. The goal: $200,000+ $75,000 is the bare minimum needed for this project! Anything over this amount will launch this documentary into the stratosphere! Ideally the goal is $200,000+. With this amount, everything can be accomplished with ease and accuracy to fulfill the true vision of the final product. The backing raised with this fundraiser is going towards: Hiring a great crew and paying them fairly for the work that they do. This will take more than volunteers to accomplish the task at hand and they need compensation. This includes pre-production, production and post-production crews. Travel, lodging and meals. Many of the students from Columbine no longer live in Colorado and a window into their current life is required. So, traveling to where they now reside is essential for this documentary. Equipment rentals are necessary to make each shoot successful and beautiful. Post production and editing is very expensive and time consuming. Especially if you want to do it right, which I do. Commissioning animators to help illustrate pieces of the documentary that can't be told through literal images, such as dreams and recreations of scenarios. Music rights to songs can be a bit pricey. So can hiring a composer to score original music for this project. Marketing for distribution including the premiere and getting the film out there. This needs to be done properly, and you/we deserve the best! Unforeseen expenses. You can't plan for everything no matter how hard you try. New ideas will arise, road blocks will pop up and some things may require more than planned. More backing will allow us to stress less and problem solve quickly. THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE. You are now a part of this film! Thank you for your support.