A Time For Burning

This black and white cinema verite documentary takes the viewer back to Omaha Nebraska, 1966. It's a time of transition and turmoil. A white Lutheran minister wants to begin a dialogue of reconciliation with the city's black residents (referred to here as colored people or Negroes). The experiment starts with a series of interchurch visits. Almost immediately, the minister runs afoul of his congregation. Reactions range from denial that there is a racial problem to a feeling that the church should not involve itself in social issues. On the other side, an angry, articulate, and idealistic black barber rebuffs the minister's reconciliation plans, questioning the white congregation's sincerity while tartly noting that "Jesus is contaminated." Photos and clippings on the wall explain why: accounts of the Medgar Evers murder trial, Southern church bombings, and violently suppressed civil rights demonstrations. In the end, in spite of mostly good intentions on everyone's part, the minister's plea for interracial dialogue fails, and the minister resigns his post. In the film, people keep saying it's not the "right time" for integration. The implicit message here is when is it ever the right time for simple justice? This well made, highly regarded 30-year-old documentary's usefulness to modern discussion groups is limited. I would have welcomed an update on what happened to the film's principal figures in the years following, and what the racial scene is in Omaha today. As it stands, the film's primary value is limited to civil rights history collections. (S. Rees)