It sounds like a set-up for some cliché horror movie: two young lovers stalked by some hillbilly while hiking in the woods. But, director Austin Bunn’s documentary/narrative hybrid, In the Hollow, isn’t some over-the-top genre tale. Rather, it’s a story that is sadly based on true events—a young gay woman’s desperate survival after a shooting on the Appalachian Trail.

As that description might entail, this is a pretty tough watch. Yet, while it’s an emotional and dramatic short, thankfully, it’s never heavy-handed. Instead of concentrating on the violent act that forever changed a person’s life, the film chooses to make the burgeoning relationship between two young women (Claudia Brenner and Rebecca Wight) its focus. Was this going to be a long term relationship? A quick romance that would have never survived a long distance arrangement? Hollow is tragic because, as viewers, we know that these sort of mundane “everyday” relationship questions will never be answered. The moments Bunn captures in reenactment are tastefully chosen—the impending violence is inevitable, so it’s actually more resonate that the film doesn’t really show it. Rather, we are left with the preamble and the devastating aftermath.

Claudia Brenner became an advocate for anti-bias crime legislation. She attended the signing of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, the first law of its kind and the first federal law to mention sexual orientation.

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