Civil Rights Docs are Hot

Showing up in theaters this week, two impressive documentary films on powerful chapters of the Civil Rights Movement. Are we seeing a resurgence of interest here? We hope so, since our own feature doc on Congressman John Lewis, goes into production this fall.

In Los Angeles, "Freedom Riders," a film by Stanley Nelson, tells the story of black and white Americans who risked their lives riding buses into the Deep South in 1961. For violating long-standing Jim Crow laws with nonviolent action, the riders were savagely beaten and jailed. See this doc next week at the Arclight in Hollywood as part of  Docuweek. It will air later this year on American Experience, the long-running PBS series. 

Recounting another historic moment in the movement, Neshoba: The Price of Freedom tells of  the three young civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney, who were brutally murdered in the Mississippi County of Neshoba in 1964 by a mob of Klansmen. "The film takes an unflinching look at ordinary citizens struggling to find peace with their town's violent, racist past in today's America."

See this one in New York next week at the Cinema Village and elsewhere around the country this fall.  

We applaud these projects for introducing new audiences to history that, until lately, has been getting dusty. 

If you see either of them - or any other newly released CRM films, we'd like to hear about them.