They were two priests separated by an ocean, yet two common events brought them together, and now their story has taken the "Best Documentary Short" at the Tribeca Film Festival.

I'm sure you remember Monsignor Robert Weiss, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown. He was the priest thrown into the National spotlight after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy back in 2012, and was the rock who stood strong consoling the families of those innocent children who lost their lives.

You may not know Monsignor Basil O’Sullivan of Scotland, however, but he too was part of a horrible tragedy. Sixteen years earlier in 1996, he was the rock who stood strong at his parish consoling the families of 16 children killed in a similar school shooting at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland.

When Sandy Hook happened, the two became interconnected, and Monsignor O'Sullivan knew exactly what he had to do. After he reached out to Monsignor Weiss in Newtown, a powerful connection formed.

Enter film maker Kim Snyder. She was already working on a documentary about the Sandy Hook massacre when she realized that there was a very strong bond growing between the two priests, and that there may be another story brewing here. Snyder did what she does so well, and directed a short 20-minute film called, Notes from Dunblane.

(Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
(Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
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Apparently, Kim's intuition was right, the film has just won Best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

She told NewsTimes that she didn’t need a first-place finish at one of the premier cinema competitions in the country to validate this touching story.

Part of her work on the story took Kim to Scotland, and she was rolling the cameras in Newtown when the two priests finally met face to face on the one year anniversary of the shooting.

As one of the Tribeca judges wrote in their review of the film:

An emotional paralysis was lifted as we watched this film that allowed us to engage once again with the brutal reality that is America today.

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