|
|
|
 |
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
|
|
Posted on 01/17/2003 12:43:18 PM PST by chance33_98
Documentary To Air On Jasper Murder
Multi Ethnic Filmmakers Shoot Documentary Over Racist Murder, Town
Posted: 12:27 p.m. EST January 17, 2003 Updated: 12:58 p.m. EST January 17, 2003
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Two segregated film crews, one black and one white, used the perspective of race to create a documentary centered on the brutal dragging death of a black man by three whites five years ago in Jasper, Texas.
The New York filmmakers behind the "Two Towns of Jasper" found the differences in perspective before filming began and the divide only grew more distinct during the two-year project.
Whitney Dow, who's white, and Marco Williams, who's black, attended Ivy League schools and have been friends for more than 20 years. After James Byrd Jr. was killed, Dow was appalled and surprised by the murder, while Williams was neither.
"With our differences so vivid, I thought that by collaborating with Whitney on a film about race, one that embraced the idea that black and white Americans see the world differently, we might be able to be part of bridging that difference," Williams said in an interview with PBS, which will air the documentary Wednesday on its film series "Point of View."
The film, selected for the Sundance Film Festival last year, was screened in six cities last week, in advance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Oprah Winfrey and ABC's "Nightline" will devote shows to it on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively.
Dow and Williams separately interviewed whites and blacks in Jasper, a timber town of about 8,000 people 100 miles northwest of Houston. What they found was a town that professed unity on the surface, but just below it a deep, racial divide built on mistrust.
Byrd, 49, was on his way home from a party when he crossed the path of Shawn Allen Berry, Lawrence Russell Brewer and John William King. The three had been out drinking when they spotted Byrd in the early hours of June 7, 1998.
They picked him up, took him to a country road, beat him, chained him to their pickup by his ankles, and dragged him for more than 2 miles until he was dismembered and decapitated.
Brewer and King were convicted and sentenced to death for the murder, while Berry received life in prison.
Jasper County Sheriff Billy Rowles recalls that night as the opening narrator of the film, saying he "knew it was a black man dead, hoping that a black man had killed him."
The film then weaves through the interviews, including those with a group of self-proclaimed white "bubbas" who meet each morning at the Belle-Jim Hotel for breakfast and a group of black women at a beauty parlor.
"He ought to be judged for the way he lived, not the way he died," one of the "bubbas," Freddie Warren, said of Byrd.
Margena Gardiner, one the beauty parlor women, faulted her own race for not getting angry enough when Byrd was killed.
"Blacks didn't rage. We didn't burn things, we didn't go out and do an eye for an eye," she said.
The racial divide was also evident when Dow and Williams interviewed white workers at the same body shop a few weeks apart.
Dow got different answers than Williams. By the time Williams got there, "they had changed their names. They had changed who owned the shop and where they were from," Dow said. "The basic distrust was so strong there."
Some whites in Jasper said they were angry over the negative attention the crime brought, and seemed surprised that such brutality could have occurred in their town. An avowed white supremacist, however, said he wasn't surprised and said he saw the murder as a commentary on the true relationship between blacks and whites.
Black residents said Byrd's death was an extreme expression of racism that exists in Jasper. While whites rushed to bring the killers to justice, black residents felt it was just to save the town's reputation.
Yet, neither whites nor blacks do much to bridge the divide. As an example, the film shows a cemetery where a fence once stood, dividing the graves of whites from blacks. It was removed only after the national media attention Jasper received following Byrd's murder. Graves, however, still remain segregated.
The directors said that they hope viewers take away from the film a new perspective on why races relate to each other the way they do.
"I hope the film shows how vastly different worlds we live in and that sometimes, on both sides, the malicious intent that is seen from the other really isn't there," Dow said.
|
|
|
|
|
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
|
|
This portion is as interesting as the timing. Race card? AGAIN?
What happened was a crime against humanity, pure and simple (I'm against "hate-crime" laws, because we're all human and crimes against our fellow humans are equally horrific, no matter the race or gender - real or perceived - of the victim)
Two of the three monstors were put to death. I'm glad. Every monstor who commits such atrocities should be put to death. No matter their race. Period.
What strikes me about this article...not necessarily the documentary, since I haven't seen it yet, though I'd be surprised if it would have gotten any awards if it was about how ALL the residents got together and brought the perps to justice...is that A:) they mention the 'bubba's' at the body shop, who went into close down-self defense mode over the questioning, and B:) that the cooperation of both races in bringing the scum to justice isn't mentioned in the article.
The article, at least - maybe not the documentary - is telling us that every white in the entire town is racist. It SEEMS to imply that the black population of the town may be a little racist, but isn't really clear about that.
If you look for a stereotype, you will find it. I hate that this happened, ANYWHERE. I am not ashamed of my 'race', 'cause I'm not guilty of what the article implies.
01/17/2003
HOUSTON - In a rare public statement, the mother of the black man dragged to death outside Jasper by three white men in 1998 says she dreads next week's premiere of a documentary about the crime and its aftermath in the East Texas city.
"My son has been dead for four years," Stella Mae Byrd, mother of James Byrd Jr., wrote in a letter published this week in The Jasper Newsboy. "What people said back then is their business and as for the family, we do not want to hear it!"
The film, "Two Towns of Jasper," is scheduled to air on PBS stations across the country Wednesday night as part of the program "P.O.V."
Filmmakers Whitney Dow and Marco Williams told the story of the crime and the three trials that followed using segregated film crews, following a cross-section of Jasperites along the way.
"The idea of filming it with a white crew filming the white community and a black crew filming the black community just seemed like a logical idea," Dow says in an interview with "P.O.V." that precedes the film. Dow is white and Williams is black.
Stella Byrd, who has rarely spoken publicly about her son's killing, said in the letter Williams misled the Byrd family about the intent of the film.
"(Williams) did not do any of the things he told us he was going to do," Stella Byrd said. "We are sorry we ever came in contact with him."
Williams, in Durham, N.C., on Friday screening the film at universities in the area, attributed Stella Byrd's remarks to emotion.
"I think Mrs. Byrd is still grieving, still in the process of healing and I think that anything that relates to the murder of her son in many ways reinjures herself," Williams said by telephone.
Williams said he spoke with Stella Byrd on Thursday and "had a good conversation, as we usually do." He said the only things he told the Byrd family were that he was making a film with Dow and that he would keep them posted and send them advance copies, which he did.
The film, coupled with a "Nightline" town hall meeting scheduled to air live on PBS from Jasper on Thursday night, will bring more unneeded attention and interrupt the city's healing process, Stella Byrd wrote.
"Ted Koppel and company will all be gone back home and we will be back home and we will be the ones left here to suffer and deal yet again with tough racial issues," Stella Byrd wrote. "All they want is show and money."
She added that she and her daughters turned down a request from Koppel to appear on the show, just as they turned down an invitation from talk-show host Oprah Winfrey for a show on the film set to air Monday.
"It's the reaction of someone who is a little overwhelmed," Williams said.
In the same issue of the Jan. 15 Newsboy, one of the victim's sisters, Betty Byrd Boatner, wrote that Jasper's blacks and whites came together after the murder, which was symbolized by the removal of a fence segregating white and black graves at the city's main cemetery.
"I watched people of all different races come together, joining hands and standing together," Boatner wrote. "I began to thank God for man could not do this alone."
Neither Boatner nor Stella Byrd has seen the film.
James Byrd was intoxicated and trying to walk home the night of June 7, 1998, when a truck carrying three white men picked him up. Later, Byrd was chained to the back of the truck and dragged for 21/2 miles to his death.
All three white ex-convicts accused in James Byrd's death were found guilty of capital murder. Racist prison gang members John William King and Lawrence Russell Brewer are on death row, while friend Shawn Allen Berry -- who wasn't affiliated with a gang -- is serving life.
The film focuses on the city and its residents as they endured the three trials, frequently recording discussions at a black beauty salon and a daily breakfast among local white men at a nearby hotel.
At one point, the film shows the breakfast club discussing their feelings about use of a common racial slur. Later, it shows the divide in Jasper over the fate of Berry, seen by some whites as less culpable and by some blacks as someone who failed to stop the attack.
Houston PBS affiliate KUHT will follow the film with a 30-minute interview with Stella Byrd taped last September. In that program, which is being made available to public broadcasting stations nationwide, the mother of eight said she had mixed feelings about the media swarm that invaded Jasper after her son's death.
"They really didn't seem to care what we were going through," she said, noting she received phone calls from journalists at all hours.
But, Stella Byrd said the media "circus" served a purpose.
"The world really did need to know about this hatred and prejudice," she said.
 |
Issued by: Beth Stafford Date: Sept. 18, 2002 |
MILWAUKEE -The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Film's Community Media Project (CMP) is a partner with Strive Media Institute in the Producer's Forum, "Two Towns of Jasper," on Thursday, Oct. 17 and Friday, Oct. 18. (This cooperative effort is the first in a series.)
"Two Towns of Jasper" is a feature-length documentary about the murder of James Byrd Jr. on June 7, 1998. The murder has been described as one of the most vicious racially motivated murders since the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till.
On Oct. 17, "Two Towns of Jasper" will be screened at 6 p.m. at Strive Media Institute, 1818 N. Martin Luther King Dr. On Oct. 18 at 6 p.m., there is a screening at America's Black Holocaust Museum, 2233 N. 4th St. Producers Marco Williams and Whitney Dow will be present at both Milwaukee events.
P.O.V., the first and longest-running independent showcase for nonfiction film, and the National Black Programming Consortia (NBPC), will present the film for its broadcast premiere on January 22, 2003 on PBS.
The film chronicles the aftermath of the murder. Byrd, an African American, was chained behind a pickup truck and dragged for three miles, until his body disintegrated. Three white men from Jasper, Texas, with ties to white supremacist groups, were arrested and later convicted of the crime.
"Two Towns of Jasper," a collaborative effort between a black and a white filmmaker, was filmed from January through December 1999. The film documented the white and black residents of Jasper with two separate crews. An all-white crew documented the white community, and an all-black crew filmed the black community
At both screenings, audience members will have the opportunity to discuss with the filmmakers their process in exploring the Jasper tragedy, its context, and its aftermath. There will be a reception at Strive Media Institute on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. before the screening. A discussion and live taping will follow the film screening at America's Black Holocaust Museum on Friday.
###
Oh, btw...I didn't see the NAACP or President Bush in the lineup here. What gives? < /bad bad bad >
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.