It began as a small documentary by two teenage filmmakers about guns, death, and grief at a tough Brooklyn housing project.

Then, in the midst of production, one of the teens saw his best friend die in a freak shooting on the project’s rooftop. The shooter was a police officer.

The episode gave the film a dramatic boost that has propelled two kids from the projects to the big time: “Bullets in the Hood: A Bed-Stuy Story” will compete next month at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival in the short documentary category.

“We thought it was something we’d show to our friends and family,” the 19-year-old cameraman and co-director, Danny Howard, said in an interview. “We never even dreamed about Sundance.”

Sponsored by the nonprofit media company, Downtown Community Television Center, Mr. Howard and his partner, on-camera narrator Terrence Fisher, 18, set out to capture a self-destructive gun culture that had claimed the lives of eight of Mr. Fisher’s friends. Early footage showed youths demonstrating their skill at loading their weapons and preaching a shoot-or-be-shot philosophy.

Residents “are dying over something that’s real stupid,” Mr. Fisher says by way of introduction. “A lot of people have guns for no reason.”

The film’s focus shifts after Mr. Fisher becomes a witness in the fatal shooting in March of 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury at the Louis Armstrong Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section. He declined to be interviewed for this story because of a pending federal review and a lawsuit against the city, filed by the Stansbury family.

However, Mr. Fisher’s raw opinions and emotions are on full display in the film, which chronicles how the community copes with the shooting.

“They shot my boy Timothy Stansbury for nothing,” he says to the camera in disgust. The shooting occurred on an otherwise quiet night in January. Officer Richard Neri and his partner were patrolling building rooftops. Stansbury, Mr. Fisher, and another friend decided to use a roof as a shortcut to another building. Officer Neri’s partner pulled open a rooftop door so that Officer Neri, his gun drawn, could peer inside for any lurking drug suspects. Stansbury startled the officers by appearing at the door and moving toward Officer Neri, who responded with one shot.