Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? - True/False Film Fest

Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?

This emotionally intense live performance uses the framework of a murder mystery to reckon with one family’s racist legacy.
Three white men in 1940s garb walking outside.
Director: Travis Wilkerson
Runtime: 1:30
In-person: dir. Travis Wilkerson
Fest Year: 2017
“Trust me when I tell you that this isn’t another white savior story. This is a white nightmare story,” Travis Wilkerson warns in his sonorous radio voice. Live and in the flesh, Wilkerson leads us on a multimedia trek into the dark basements of family history. In 1946, S.E. Branch — Wilkerson’s great-grandfather — murdered Bill Spann, a black man, in Dothan, Alabama. Buried under years of silence, Wilkerson must play gumshoe detective as he slowly pieces together the historical record. And as he goes deeper, poking at events that nobody seems to want to remember, the historical threats begin to manifest themselves on the lonely highways of present-day Alabama. It’s impossible to go on this journey and not arrive at the conclusion angry, afraid, but also inspired by Wilkerson’s soul-searching. (DW)