On June 7, 1998, the most vicious racially motivated murder since the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till occurred in Jasper, Texas. James Byrd, an African American, was chained to a pick-up truck and dragged behind it for three miles until his body disintegrated. Three white men from Jasper, with ties to white supremacist groups, were arrested and later convicted for the crime.
Two film crews, one black and one white, led by Marco Williams and Whitney Dow, set out to record the repercussions of this modern-day lynching by following the trials of the men charged with the crime and the reactions of the community members. Two Towns of Jasper integrates footage from an all white crew documenting the white community and an all black crew filming the black community. Many documentaries and dramatic films have been made about the racial divide in America, but none have used segregated crews as a lens on the subject. Filming within the respective races as opposed to across the races provides a unique and rare occasion for audiences to have “insider” access, to witness intimate moments typically not shared with anyone outside a closed community.
Ist Tuesday Social Action Film Festival is presented by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff Social Action Committee in cooperation with the Dallas Peace Center. Films are free, but a donation is suggested to defray costs.
