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There have been about 75 school shootings in the United States as of December 2025, according to CNN’s analysis of reports by Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety. Forty-three were on college campuses while 32 were on K-12 school grounds. The high risk of injury or death has spawned activism from teachers and students, as well as the uptick of educators quitting the profession.
In comes Sam Henderson’s Ado, which draws attention to the escalating gun violence in America. Influenced by his and his mother’s experience as teachers in the Texas education system in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, the film is a staggering mental health portrait told through the eyes of an overworked and underpaid teacher (Jenifer Lewis) who, while in the middle of a rehearsal with her young class for William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, a former disgruntled student bursts in with a gun. The emotional stirrer took home wins at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, American Black Film Festival, the BronzeLens Film Festival – Atlanta, and the Cleveland International Film Festival.
Here, Henderson talks to Deadline about the inspiration behind the timely short and the importance of Black cinema.
DEADLINE: There are many ways to cover the topic of school shootings. Why did you decide to settle on the teacher’s perspective?
SAM HENDERSON: The idea was initiated from a conversation I had with my mom, who is a middle school theater teacher. The character of Ms. Hopkins is a version of her. Also, this idea was not too far removed from the Uvalde shooting and we live in Texas. When it comes to school shooting tragedies like that, it’s not the first time it’s happened, and it’s not going to be the last, unfortunately. But the Uvalde situation hit so close to home that I was talking to my mom about it, and she said, “I think the only chance I’d have is if the shooter knew me or if he was in my class.” So, it wasn’t until that moment that it occurred to me to make a film about my mom’s perspective. She wasn’t trying to pitch me a movie, but I just thought that it would be a good idea for once, since I don’t think I’ve seen that perspective before. Usually, you get the shooters’ or the kids’ perspective. I realized that the teachers are the ones who don’t get as much attention in the situation, and they’re the ones who work at the schools. I wanted to create something that addresses the school shooting issue and the teacher’s perspective on the events, but I didn’t want to put it out just to preach to the choir or share political messaging.
DEADLINE: You have teenage kids. Did you get their input on the situation?
HENDERSON: Yeah, my kids are 16 and 14. My daughter [Karis Henderson] plays Maddie in the film, and I asked them what the protocols were at their respective schools. And that, in and of itself, was surreal to ask my own kids, who took no time at all to respond to that. Whereas when I was in school, there wasn’t really a frame of reference for something like that at their age. We had the normal fire drills, and in the Cold War era, there were nuclear drills, but that’s what this [shooting era] feels like. It feels like something specific to the era because of this epidemic that my own children have to be prepared for. It’s strange. But look, this is a 15-minute film; I didn’t make it to change the world, but I wanted to be authentic to the people around me. The people I care about, and I think it highlights a real issue we have.
DEADLINE: How did Jenifer Lewis come to the project?
HENDERSON: I’ll start by saying that when she and I do these interviews together, she views herself as more of an advocate than an actress at this point in her career. Originally, several people of Ms. Lewis’s caliber and beyond said no. Oscar nominees, Oscar winners… I noticed that their agents weren’t reading the script. They’d just say [to us] that this person doesn’t do shorts or was not going to be reading the script. So, we spent a couple of months just trying to get the script into people’s hands that we thought would be appropriate for the role. We had this great casting director named Ally Beans, who got the script to Jenifer Lewis’ agent, Jonathan [Howard]. He read the script, and he was one of the first people, we think, to read it, and he loved it. He really wanted to go to bat for her to do our short. So, she read it and told us that she fell in love with the story and viewed it as part of her advocacy. She was very excited about the challenge because she knew she could do it.
It was so fascinating when Jenifer came on board because at first, I wondered if she was wrong for the part. Not because she’s a bad actor – of course not, she’s an icon. It was because tackling Shakespeare, being a dramatist, is not something we’ve really seen her do in the course of her career. So, it was touching to see how excited she was about coming into this short film format with us. This topic is something that she’s very passionate about. She was one of the celebrities who went down to Parkland in Florida when that shooting happened. It’s been a major blessing to have her associated with this film. She, in large part, makes it what it is.
DEADLINE: You’ve been making the rounds at Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, BronzeLens Film Festival, and the American Black Film Festival, and now you’ve landed the 2026 Oscars shortlist. What does this mean to you?
HENDERSON: It’s hard for me not get emotional because it really means so much to me about how people have responded to the film. What I want to say is that we’ve been to 11 Oscar-qualifying festivals or so, and we’ve won four of those Oscar-qualifying festivals, but three of them are Black. The first one we won was the American Black Film Festival at the HBO and Warner Bros Showcase, which qualified us for the Oscars. I said then that I didn’t know what was going to happen with this film, but if we ended up on stage at the Academy Awards, I was doing it [for the culture]. Then we won Martha’s Vineyard and BronzeLens. So, for me, this experience of taking this film out on the road has been a tale of two cities. We’ve traveled to all these festivals, but we’ve won all the Black ones.
Separately, what’s been interesting is that those Oscar-qualifying Black film festivals don’t get the same attention or don’t hold the same weight [in the film industry and media] as the other ones, such as the Clevelands, Flordias, Dallas or Palm Springs or what have you. Rarely does it get mentioned that we won at Black film festivals that are focused on Black films and Black filmmakers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been incredibly meaningful to be at every film festival that we’ve been to, so this isn’t about race. It’s been incredibly meaningful because of the response people have had to the film, especially this film, which is loosely dedicated to my mother, and to have other people come up to talk to me about how they’re teachers or know someone who is. And the reception from the audiences at the festivals that champion Black films has been off the charts. When my film comes up, people are shouting at the screen, tracking the film frame by frame; they know what’s tense, they know what’s funny. It’s almost like it wasn’t until we made the film and showed it to the festivals that we really saw, like, oh, this is who the film was really made for. So, I feel like we’ve won because of those responses alone.
It’s awesome that we’ve landed the shortlist, and we still have a process to go through. Maybe the journey for the film ends here, but I know I have carried with me, those festivals and our audience, and I will continue to carry them with me through this process, however far the film goes. The response around the world has been amazing, but it’s been especially sweet how those particular festivals have recognized us, lifted us up, and treated us from day one as though we were an Oscar-worthy film. And I think they deserve a shout-out. They deserve as much attention as all the rest of the 160 or whatever Oscar-qualifying festivals. They deserve their place in recognition of the voices that they champion.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]
English (US) ·