www.montereycountynow.com MARCH 12-18, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 Conall Jones’ work days are busy with calls, Slack, texts, Zoom meetings. As a documentary film producer, there is always something to do—schedule interviews, view footage, coordinate logistics. He occupies the same frenetic world as we all do, with multiple screens competing for his attention all the time. Still, he says, “I do believe in the power of cinema to transport people.” That makes a film all about absence all the more stirring. There is a weight of vacancy in All the Empty Rooms, a slow-moving, 34-minute documentary. The film, directed by Joshua Seftel, follows CBS correspondent Steve Hartman on a project around the country as he documents the empty bedrooms of children who were killed in school shootings. Hartman is grappling with his own numbness after covering too much violence. Each child dead is not a statistic, he knows—but in visiting surviving parents and siblings in the intimacy of their homes, and the intimacy of their late children’s bedrooms, Hartman really knows. And this knowing is what Hartman, and by extension Seftel and Jones, hope to share with viewers. “I wish we could transport all Americans to stand in one of those bedrooms for just a few minutes,” Hartman says in the film. “We’d be a different America.” Jones, speaking from his home in Carmel Valley, says this is the goal of the film: to transport us all to these bedrooms, “so people can feel what it’s like to be there and that these kids were real, they are not a statistic.” It is atmospheric, with the sounds of creaking floors sometimes taking up space instead of dialogue. Through close-ups of the details of mundane acts of living—a toothpaste cap left unscrewed, a laundry basket still full five years later, a shoebox under the bed—we join these parents in their unspeakable grief in the wake of entirely preventable loss. As the media and the public move on from each shooting, half expecting the next, they endure the daily emptiness of their loss. In Uvalde, Texas, Javier Cazares keeps a chair next to his daughter Jackie Cazares’ bed. “It brings me some comfort just to go in there, just to chat sometimes,” he tells the camera. Jackie was 9 when she was murdered in a mass shooting at her elementary school. In Santa Clarita, Cindy and Bryan Muehlberger keep their 15-year-old daughter Gracie Muehlberger’s clothes, selected to wear on Friday, on the hanger. She was killed on a Thursday at Saugus High School in 2019. Gracie was a natural performer, and she aspired to be in an Oscar-nominated film someday, Jones says. All the Empty Rooms is one of five nominees for Best Documentary Short at the Academy Awards (to be announced Sunday, March 15), “and now she is, for all the wrong reasons,” Jones says. When the families and film crew joined a video call early one morning in January and heard they’d been nominated, Jones says the Muehlbergers wept. Jones has seen the film hundreds of times and says he cries on every watch, but quickly says it’s not about him—it is about the grieving families. But Jones is also a parent of a 1-yearold son and a 6-year-old daughter and he, too, is changed. “I have a more profound gratitude for my kids and my life,” he says. “I have been trying to keep my daughter away from even knowing what this film is about, because I don’t want her to even think about it.” After growing up in Carmel Valley, Jones found documentary film by way of San Francisco, LA, Korea and New York, before returning in 2021. This is his second Oscar nomination and yes, he will be wearing a tux for the big night. “It’s strange being part of the glitz and glamor,” he says. “There’s a little part of me that thinks it’s fun, but thankfully we are bringing the families with us and that helps ground us in not getting too caught up in the celebrity of it all, which is a temptation.” The film truly settles into the humanness of who these children were and how they are frozen in time for their grieving families. There is no discussion of politics or policy remedies. That was partly to ensure Netflix would buy All The Empty Rooms and not to alienate prospective viewers, but also to make sure that it’s about what it is supposed to be about: real people enduring preventable and heartbreaking grief. Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Film Shoot A Carmel Valley film producer heads to the Oscars for a short documentary. By Sara Rubin HOT LINKS…Squid oozes around town and also around the internet, where you never know what you might find. Screenshots of sassy comments posted then deleted by slow-moving sea stars? Check. The internet is forever, even when you delete stuff. Squid expected that in 2026 politicians would know that to be true, but there’s always something to learn and such is the case in the race for District 2 on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors. Just before the deadline to file candidacy paperwork on March 6, Squid started perusing the websites of incumbent Glenn Church and challenger Ramon Gomez. Squid was baffled to see Salinas City Councilmember Aurelio Salazar listed as an endorsement on both. So was Salazar. “I have made no public endorsements yet,” he tells Squid’s colleague. (Later updates show him on team Gomez.) There were a few other outdated endorsements on Church’s page, including former supervisor Lou Calcagno, who died in 2023. Whoopsies! There was also Cristina Medina, wrongly identified as a member of Marina City Council, from which she resigned in 2024. (Medina is making no endorsement this year and as a member of the Democratic Central Committee advocated for a dual endorsement, on which she was overridden; the party went with Church.) Obviously it was an outdated list, left over from 2022. Squid’s colleague asked Church what was up, and he described it as “weird,” adding: “I thought it was removed. I’m not a tech person to know those details.” Details, shmetails. On his endorsements, Gomez offers a quote: “Ramon Gomez is a true leader.” Attribution: “Example Endorsement.” As in, an example of what not to do. SHOULDER TAP…Squid’s colleagues paid close attention in 2025 to the appointment process by California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas to the influential California Coastal Commission. He went with Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez, over incumbent Justin Cummings of Santa Cruz. Less dramatic was Rivas’ Nov. 25 appointment of an alternate, Lopez’s nominee, who Squid was surprised to learn was not even a contender in round one: Seaside Mayor Ian Oglesby. (Oglesby has not yet filled in for Lopez, who prioritizes attendance at the meetings. “I am excited to welcome him and have him there to back me up,” Lopez says. “Seaside is one of those cities that is doing, and clearly making a difference.”) Squid’s colleague asked Oglesby about his approach. “I look to play a role in protecting the coastline and making sure it is fairly developed and that we continue to have access to the coast. It’s pretty straightforward.” Only nothing is straightforward in coastal politics. Oglesby explains how it came to be: “[Lopez] approached me, and I said yes.” Both men have growing power. Squid will watch to see how they use it. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “These kids were real, they are not a statistic.” SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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