Filmmaker Travis Wilkerson's arty and self-described "radical" documentary examines an obscure killing—possibly a hate crime—in yesteryear's Alabama. In 1946, Wilkerson’s grandfather, a grocer named S.E. Branch, gunned down a black man named Bill Spann in the store, was charged with murder, but swaggered away sans repercussions. Now, the numerous deaths of unarmed blacks at the hands of police prompts Wilkerson to visit the forgotten crime scene, try to track down an aunt immersed in a white supremacy cult, and reopen old family wounds about what a monstrous patriarch Branch might have been. Wilkerson concludes that the compromised Atticus Finch who upholds a racist status quo in Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman was truer than her heroic Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird. Much of the film features b&w shots of Deep South environments, over which Wilkerson speaks in a theatrically ominous tone (apparently the film evolved from an interactive live-narrated multimedia piece). Rare levity comes from interviewee Ed Vaughn, a black politician who remembers finally enjoying a whites-only meal once segregation ended—and wondering why he ever wanted such a lousy cheeseburger in the first place. A flawed but interesting and timely documentary, this is a strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
(2017) 90 min. DVD: $375. Grasshopper Film. PPR. Volume 33, Issue 4
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
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