The Seattle Times - SUNDAY
January 30, 2000

Snoqualmie teen bases movie on Columbine

by Laurence M. Cruz
The Associated Press

The Columbine High School massacre has prompted calls for stronger gun-control legislation and stricter school security. It also inspired a Washington state teenager to make a movie.

Paul Gordon, 18, wrote, directed, shot and edited a 32-minute movie about school shootings. He recruited classmates to help as a project for the fledgling film class at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie.

"I got the inspiration to write something that would really make a difference," said Gordon who was concerned at first that school shootings would be "a touchy subject."
His principal shared the concern.

"At first I was very hesitant," said George llgenfritz, "because our country is going though a time where people feel very raw and sensitive" about school violence.

But he liked the script.

"It's kind of a story about people helping people to make our world better," Ilgenfritz said.

In the April 20, 1999, Columbine Shootings in Littleton, Colo., 12 students and one teacher were shot to death by students Eric Harris' and Dylan Klebold. The teenagers thenturned their guns on themselves.

Gordon's film, "Silhouettes of Time," follows the tormented fortunes of a loner named Dawson, whose run-ins with the school bully trigger an overwhelming urge to kill the bigger, more popular student.

But the parallels with Columbine - where the hatred felt by the two gunmen apparently was fueled in part by school athletes teasing them - end there. There are no trench coats, no plans to commit mass killings - and no tragic ending.

In fact, the plot would not be out of place in an episode of "Touched by an Angel." Dawson does, get to act out his plan for revenge, but the shooting takes place in a dream. And Dawson's only friend a student who reached out to him earlier in the story - ends up taking the bullet.

Finally, an angelic being shows Dawson a preview of what his life will be like if he acts out the shooting in life then Dawson wakes up.

"He has a chance to undo it, to redo his ,day,,_ says Gordon, who spent three months shooting the film at the school, at nearby Snoqualmie Falls, and at the local police station and graveyard.
"He realizes how important the one kid was who reached out to him."

A private screening of the movie is scheduled tomorrow at the school.

Gordon shot the movie on high definition digital video, using mostly school equipment. His mother, Elaine Gordon, who doubles as his media rep, chipped in $500 and did what she could to pay the student cast.

Gordon says making "Silhouettes" has inspired him to study film in college.