Impact After the Crash

I accidentally started watching this at 2 am. I couldn't stop. I am the same age as a lot of those kids and this moved me. I now need to tell everyone about it. You will cry. You will smile. But above all else this is a hard lesson learned and a story that needs to be told and told and told and told. You want to watch this.

Oh my goodness, I could hardly hear what the story was about so I thankfully read it in subtitles. My goodness, the sound effects were no-joke deafening though!! It literally drowned out anything that people were saying. But like the other reviewer stated, it's a well-put together documentary outside of the sound effects.

The documentary is fine, but the "background" music made it difficult to listen and focus on the interviews. It was so loud, and I'm hearing impaired. It was distracting for me to hear the droning of the background music than being able to listen in and focus on the interviews. The documentary as whole though kept my interest. I was very surprised to learn that Ford Motor Company didn't want to settle for recalling the buses and adding safety features the one family who lost their daughter requested. I hope the survivors of the tragedy are in a healing place now. Also a testament towards the dangers of drinking and driving.

Completely unfamiliar with this horrifying event, I began watching it expecting a tragedy documentary which would contain information, details and public reactions to the crash.

However, I was drawn into it by the careful and concise stories related by survivors and family members of victims, which lead the viewer in a gradual and compassionate presentation of the awful event as part of a bigger picture.

The filmmaker is privileged indeed in capturing the accounts from the survivors and family members; articulate, thoughtful and emotionally grounded individuals who frankly unveil their experiences, both awful and heartbreaking. Their individual stories unfold to display not merely the impact and it's aftermath, but it's meaning understood by those individuals as it was taking place and subsequently.

The film is deeply emotional, yet unexpectedly uplifting through the separate stories as they evolved and intertwined. The strength of spirit and character of all the interviewees left me very moved. At the end of the film images and names of all of the victims who died in the crash is revealed - I admit to weeping openly. As they alphabetically go down the list the respect paid throughout the film translated those names and faces into loved and cherished individuals.

As a father, I dread to think what a brutal experience this must have been for the parents of children lost that evening. Seeing the survivors describe their recovery, I can only imagine how painful and overwhelming their path was. This community, these families, these dear friends describe the unrelenting permanence of suffering, yet it's tempered by a desire to find or await meaning, and to discover that joy persists - an experience which was much more palpable than I was expecting. A heartfelt recommendation.

My father lives at the exit on 71 South where the sign sits and it is a reminder every visit... amazing job with film