Hunter College will air an Academy Award-nominated documentary short film about the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that was narrated by a shooting survivor who is now a Hunter film major.
The Athena Honors Scholar Program will screen Death by Numbers, which was written and narrated by Hunter College student Sam Fuentes ’25 and directed by Peabody award-winning filmmaker Kim A. Snyder, on Tuesday, May 6, from 2:30 to 3:45 at the Hemmerdinger Screening Room. Fuentes and several Athena Scholars will speak on a panel after the screening. The event is open to all Hunter College students and faculty.
“As students of the humanities, Athenas are honored to present Sam’s film about such an important subject that affects all of us” said Athena Honors Program Director Susan Barile. “Please come out and show your support.”
Fuentes was in her Holocaust Studies class at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas on February 14, 2018, when a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle burst into the school and opened fire. He killed 17 people and wounded many others, including Fuentes, who was shot in the thigh.
Fuentes tried to understand her trauma by writing about it in a journal, excerpts of which inform the film, which deals with her struggles to survive and later to face the shooter in court.
The 33-minute film was one of five to be nominated for an Academy Award for Short Documentary in 2025. Although it did not win, it garnered excellent reviews. “Footage of Fuentes speaking to the perpetrator directly in court is, as the young people say, fire,” according to critic Scott Tobias of The Reveal.
About the Athena Honors Program
The Athena Honors Program invites applicants in disciplines including, but not limited to: Classics, Creative Writing, English, Film Studies, Languages, Literature, Philosophy, Religion, and other disciplines in the Humanities.
Athenas study with their cohort in a first-year general Humanities course, followed by a second year, one semester course. Athenas are invited to think across disciplines and to delve into subjects that consider how we form meaning in our lives and through our work.
Through these introductory classes, Athena Scholars explore large philosophical questions concerning the quality and meaning of our lives. Athenas consider how literature poses such philosophical questions. The specially designated courses and activities available to Athena Scholars also allow students to hone their writing, oral, and critical-thinking skills.
