The summer of 2019 saw an alarming number of child deaths by gun violence in St. Louis. This statistic sparked the interest of filmmaker Ben Scholle, who sought to take a closer look at local efforts to curb gun violence in St. Louis from 2020 to 2022. His film, Catching Bullets, will play locally at the 24:1 Cinema on August 14, ahead of its August 15 global premiere on streaming platforms such as Tubi and Prime Video.
Catching Bullets focuses on Darren Seals, a youth mentor, activist, and founder of the Sankofa Unity Center (6100 Emma) in Walnut Park, who is also involved in many violence prevention efforts around St. Louis. Seals, a reformed gang member whose life was upended by gun violence, brings an insider’s perspective to the fight to break the cycles of generational violence that he once perpetuated. The film captures intimate dialogues as Seals and others work to connect with young men, get to the root of what drives this violence, and find alternatives to break the cycle and improve the community. Central to the film is Seals’ relationship with Preston “Tink” Jones, a young drug dealer and son of one of Seals’ late friends, who frequents the Sankofa Unity Center.
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Scholle first learned about growing violence-prevention efforts, specifically Cure Violence, in 2019 while helping out on another film. He had already applied for a course release from his job as a Senior Professor of Cinema Arts at Lindenwood University for a production project, and realized these violence-prevention efforts could be a compelling subject for a project of his own.
“I would describe the climate, at the time, as kind of desperate, and people were trying a lot of new violence intervention strategies,” Scholle says. “I was interested in getting involved and finding out what was happening. I wanted to see what kind of film or story I could find in violence prevention.”
Scholle started by reaching out to several violence prevention organizations in the area, such as the Washington University Institute for Public Health, the Bullet Related Injury Clinic (BRIC), and Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression (CAPCAR) in search of story threads. The focus of the film started to come together when he attended a Moms Demand Action rally with filmmaker and community activist Derrick Phillips, a former student of Scholle’s, who worked as a key collaborator and producer on the film.
“At that time there were a lot of people working on different prevention strategies, and I was feeling like enough of an outsider that I needed to get a bit more into the community before I could really make a film about it,” Scholle says. “As a white guy, I felt like I couldn’t just go into Walnut Park and try to tell this story.”
Scholle decided his best approach would be to volunteer his services, helping many of these organizations with video production work. This volunteer work is how Scholle eventually connected with Seals and learned more about his work at the Sankofa Unity Center. After learning about his story and seeing him interact with Jones, it soon became clear that the film should focus on Seals.
“As much as you want to represent a nuanced issue with a lot of different facets, I think a documentary works best when it creates a human face for an issue that people have a hard time relating to,” Scholle says. “And I think Darren and Preston are that human face.”
Scholle wrapped filming at the end of 2022, and Catching Bullets first premiered at the 2024 St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, where it won Best Documentary and earned an encore screening at the 2024 St. Louis International Film Festival. The film is now getting global distribution from Buffalo 8, which will see it streaming on Tubi and available to rent and purchase from Prime Video, as well as other VOD providers, starting August 15.
Ahead of that streaming release, Catching Bullets will have a special local screening at the 24:1 Cinema (6755 Page) on August 14 at 6:30 p.m. The screening will begin with the short Student of the Game, which Scholle notes was originally meant to be part of Catching Bullets. This short focuses on a portrait artist painting people whose lives have been impacted by gun violence. There will also be a discussion following the film, along with representatives from the many violence-prevention organizations highlighted in the film set up in the lobby, including the Sankofa Unity Center, Faces Not Forgotten, and Breaking Generational Poverty, an organization founded by Preston’s mother, Precious Jones.
In the time since Scholle wrapped, there has been a continued decrease in violent crime in St. Louis, with an April report noting that the city has seen the lowest first-quarter homicide rate since 2005. While the numbers indicate progress, there is still plenty of work to be done. With this in mind, Scholle hopes the Catching Bullets can encourage and add to conversations around violence prevention and help audiences everywhere better understand the underlying issues of this violence.
“There’s no magic solution or quick fix. It’s going to take a lot of work, and it’s going to take addressing a lot of underlying issues we are very aware of,” Scholle says.“It’s a really complicated cycle, but I think the most important thing is for an audience to watch it and be able to identify and sympathize with somebody who they might not have been able to otherwise.”
For a public screening schedule and streaming options, visit catchingbullets.com.
