The documentary Uvalde Mom made its premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW), offering a deeply personal and urgent examination of the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting. Directed by Anayansi Prado, the film follows Angeli Rose Gomez, the mother who ran into Robb Elementary School during the mass shooting on May 24, 2022, rescuing her two children while law enforcement remained outside.
The film goes beyond Gomez’s harrowing rescue to explore the systemic failures that failed her and the Uvalde community—not just on that day, but long before. Prado, a seasoned documentary filmmaker with a history of covering the Latino experience in the U.S., was drawn to the story due to her background in chronicling issues of immigration, labor rights, and education.
“I thought I was going to make a film about the community and the aftermath of the shooting,” Prado said. “But then I learned about [Angeli’s] past and ended up making what I will say is a film really about systems, particularly the criminal justice system, the law enforcement system, and what happens when they fail individuals like Angeli, which is parallel with their failure the day of the shooting.”
The documentary does not shy away from the deep fractures within the Uvalde community. Prado observed that in the months following the tragedy, tensions rose between parents who refused to send their children back to school and those who felt they had no choice. She also witnessed the beginnings of mobilization for gun reform—though others in the community dismissed gun control efforts and instead focused on mental health as the root issue.
While Uvalde Mom is a personal story, it is also a damning portrait of law enforcement’s inaction during the shooting and the ongoing struggles for accountability. The film captures how Gomez herself faced harassment from law enforcement following her actions that day, raising questions about whose interests the system ultimately serves.
For Gomez, participating in the documentary was an emotional and difficult process, as it required revisiting not just the shooting but also her personal history.
“It was very challenging because my kids didn’t even know the details of my past until this film,” Gomez said. “But I had to open up the good and the bad because people will bring up your bad even when you do good. I just wanted to show them: Yes, it is true, this happened in my life, but it’s also to empower women that are in domestic violence [situations] to escape it.”
Her advocacy now extends beyond gun violence; she is working with friends to start a foundation supporting women in abusive relationships or those who have been unfairly caught in the criminal justice system.
Prado also emphasized that the documentary will serve as more than just a film—it will be a tool for advocacy. As part of its impact campaign, Uvalde Mom will be screened in various communities to encourage conversations about gun violence, police accountability, and domestic abuse.
“I hope that people connect to Angeli on a human level—as someone who did whatever she had to do to save her loved ones, her children,” Prado said. “And that we ask ourselves: Why was she in that situation? Why were the parents and the whole town of Uvalde in that situation? And we begin to take even more seriously the failures of the systems that are meant to serve—and that we start to mobilize for change.”
For Gomez, the hope is that audiences walk away with a renewed sense of urgency about the need for action.
“I just hope this film inspires people in so many different ways,” Gomez said. “If they’re going through issues like me at home or going through legal things like me, I hope I can help them through that process. And also to end gun violence—so people can start getting out there and wanting to be a supporter against guns so we can prevent these school shootings from happening.”
With its SXSW debut, Uvalde Mom has already sparked conversations about the failures of law enforcement, the resilience of a grieving community, and the urgent need for meaningful change in the fight against gun violence.
Read the full interview with Uvalde Mom director Anayansi Prado and Angeli Rose Gomez, conducted by RA News Reporter Sam Stockbridge, here:
Anayansi Prado: I’m Anayansi Prado, I am the director of Uvalde Mom, a documentary about Angeli Rose Gomez, who’s right here with me.
Prado: She is the mother who ran into Robb Elementary during the mass shooting back in May of 2022 and walked out with her two children while the shooting was going on. The film is really a personal portrait of Angeli and her life before the shooting and what happened to her after the shooting, which involves harassment from police. It’s also a story about the town and what happens after the shooting under a plea for accountability.
Like many of us who watched what unfolded in Uvalde, I was very moved by the situation. I was particularly impacted because I saw that it was predominantly a Mexican American Latino community. I have spent over two decades of my work as a documentary filmmaker documenting the Latino experience in the U.S., covering topics like undocumented immigration, labor rights, and education rights. Knowing that it was a working-class community, a Latino community, I knew there would be challenges with accountability from law enforcement.
Prado: I began to look for a story there. And I found Angeli. What’s really interesting is that when you set out to make a documentary, you often think you’re making a film about something, but then it turns out to be about something else. That was the case with this. I thought I was going to make a film about the community and the aftermath of the shooting, but then I learned about her past and ended up making what I will say is a film really about systems, particularly the criminal justice system, the law enforcement system, and what happens when they fail individuals like Angeli, which is parallel with their failure the day of the shooting and how that impacts individuals, families, and communities for a lifetime.
Sam Stockbridge: Absolutely. Yeah. I think that’s a really interesting topic. Well, you have experience making other documentaries. You know, what other work have you done, and how did that affect your influence — you know, the process for making this documentary?
Prado: So, my very first documentary, which I made in the early 2000s, was about undocumented Latino domestic workers in LA. I followed their lives for three years and I made a documentary about unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border back in 2008. Then the film I made before this one is called The Unafraid, and it’s about DACA and undocumented students in the state of Georgia.
Prado: They’re all personal stories. I tend to make films about issues that some might call, quote-unquote, controversial, but my approach is always to show individuals in a very human way that doesn’t necessarily always put politics at the forefront, but rather humanizes the experience so the audience can connect that way. And then ask themselves: Why is this person in this situation? How is our system failing them?
So it was ideal for me to have met Angeli because her personal story was just so rich, especially her past. It lent itself to exploring these different issues again of systems, particularly the criminal justice system, and filming the harassment of individuals. Eventually, the town itself became part of the story as well, so it was a really rich story for me as a filmmaker to tell.
Stockbridge: Yeah, and Angeli, I don’t know — from seeing the movie, it seemed like you’ve been interviewed by a couple of news crews before. But obviously, the process of participating in a documentary is a bit different. What was different about that? How was that a different experience than what you may have experienced before?
Angeli Rose Gomez: Okay, it takes over your life. No, but it’s fun because, you know, I opened up my doors, and it’s different. You have cameras on you at all times. You have to follow a lot of things, and there’s a lot to it. It was hard at first, but I’ve already gotten immune to it. I’m just like, “She can just walk into the door of our house already — like, she doesn’t have to knock anymore.”
Stockbridge: I guess one thing — well, maybe only Anayansi can start with this — in a previous interview we did, you mentioned, and even just earlier you mentioned, an interest in trying to understand the character of Uvalde. What did you find? What was your takeaway about what the character of Uvalde is like after spending so much time in the community?
Prado: Yeah, I mean, when I got to the community, folks were still very much united, fighting for accountability of what happened that day, and things were very raw. But there was also a division starting to happen, particularly with sending children back to school.
Prado: Parents started to be divided. One group was saying, “Don’t send your kids to school,” while another group wanted to send their kids to school. Then those people stopped — like, they were fighting against each other. So I started to watch this unification begin to fracture. I also began to see mobilization towards gun reform and raising the age for acquiring an assault rifle or assault weapon. Then there were other folks who were saying, “You have to move on. This is a mental health issue.” So I again began to see that the town was fracturing over this incident.
It was really interesting because oftentimes we hear about mass shootings and what happens but there isn’t necessarily always a follow-up on what happens in the town. It’s interesting to witness that. And here’s the thing, I personally don’t think anybody’s wrong or anybody’s right. I think what the town went through was a horrible tragedy that they never should have gone through and everybody is just trying to process that pain in different ways. To me there is no right, there is no wrong, there are just people trying to process incredible grief and pain that they never should have gone through in the best way that they can.
Stockbridge: Absolutely. And, Angeli, did you feel that participating in the documentary, did that change your perception or your understanding of the community that you were a part of? You know, I don’t know, obviously you can’t go back in time and look at how you’re, how you would have felt about the community had you not been, you know, part of this documentary.
But, do you feel like that maybe affected the way that you saw things by being there with a camera crew and trying to understand things in that way?
Gomez: Well, actually, there were some things that I had to learn about my own community like the walkout was one of the things I never knew about – our walkout back in 1966.
That also started showing me about my community, about how long they’ve been dealing with certain issues that go further back, than the issue we tried to put out there. I mean, they’re still going through it. It just shows us from then to now that my community is still struggling to fight for change and for more Hispanics to have authority around there or to at least get treated the same. That was one thing that I learned from doing this documentary and it also impacted me really hard just to know I had siblings that went through that walkout and I never knew the things they went through.
Stockbridge: On that point too, I think it took great vulnerability to talk about your past, something that I think it’s easy to forget about, or it’s easy to get obscured by sort of the more immediate, more viral headlines about your involvement and what happened with the shooting. That must have been a difficult thing. Tell me about what that process was like.
Gomez: Well, it’s very challenging because you know kids didn’t even know the details of my past until this film. Now they know what me and their father went through. And so it was hard to open up that, but I had to open up the good and the bad because people will bring up. You’re bad, even when you do good, and when you do good, bad.
I just wanted to show them, like, yes, it is true, this happened in my life. But it’s also to empower women that are in domestic violence to escape it, and try not to reach the part where you get imprisoned for it, or have to go through that hard path. It’s just for women to feel a little stronger and step up for themselves and use their voice.
Gomez: And that’s really why I chose to bring my past into it because I want to help women that are struggling to not leave a toxic relationship, or just to give them a little bit of courage.
Stockbridge: It sounds like we’ve got about three minutes left. Maybe just to sort of cap things off, can you tell me about how making this documentary helped get one or both of you more involved in advocacy efforts or interested in policies to prevent things like this from happening again?
Gomez: Well actually, I had already met friends a while ago who were trying to start an advocacy group called Fierce Mothers. We’re still friends, and they still talk about what they want to do, even though they all live in different places than me. But one of them and I have been talking about starting a small foundation to help women like me — women who may have had a false sentence, or maybe have been beaten and need better resources like counseling or therapy.
Gomez: We’ve been talking about that — once all this chaos from the film settles down and I have a little downtime, I can start helping them try to organize that and figure it out.
Prado: Yes, and with the film, we’re going to start doing festival screenings now that we’ve premiered at South by Southwest. We’re also planning what we call an impact campaign, where we’ll partner with organizations that are doing advocacy around the themes of the film — like gun violence and domestic abuse. Hopefully, we’ll bring the film to communities where we can have conversations with people impacted by these issues and also do advocacy work to bring about change.
Stockbridge: Absolutely. What do you guys hope people take away from watching this documentary?
Prado: I hope that people connect to Angeli on a human level — as someone who did whatever she had to do to save her loved ones, her children. And that we ask ourselves: Why was she in that situation? Why were the parents and the whole town of Uvalde in that situation? And we begin to take even more seriously the failures of the systems that are meant to serve — and that we start to mobilize for change and get more involved in politics and on a community level.
Gomez: I just hope this film inspires people in so many different ways. If they’re going through issues like me at home or going through legal things like me, I hope I can help them through that process. And also to end gun violence — so people can start getting out there and wanting to be a supporter against guns so we can prevent these school shootings from happening.
Stockbridge: Well hey, thank you guys so much for your time. I really appreciate it, and if there’s anything else to pass along, any news about the documentary, you’ve got our contact info. Feel free to reach out. Thank you guys so much for coming.
