DID YOU WONDER WHO FIRED THE GUN? Trailer
True crime and longstanding sociopolitical issues are explored in Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, a documentary that mines director Travis Wilkerson’s own family history.
The shooting referred to in the title occurred in 1946 when S.E. Branch (Wilkerson’s great-grandfather) killed Bill Spann in lower Alabama. Spann was black, Branch was white. We know who literally fired the gun, but the ramifications of that event affects the lives of their descendants and stem from broader issues that continue on today.
The film began as a strange project at Sundance 2017, where Wilkerson sat to the side of the screen and read from a script while the visuals played above. It sounds like that narration has been placed more traditionally into the current incarnation of the film, but this will likely still be structured as Wilkerson talking you through the event.
It’s a very personal take on the story told from somewhere between an insider and an outsider perspective. Yes, it’s Wilkerson’s own family, but he wouldn’t have known this relative personally. He will still need to investigate the circumstances and aftermath of the shooting, and where that takes him will undoubtedly be related to the racial tension still brewing in the U.S. today.
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? is directed by Travis Wilkerson. It will be released in New York City on February 28th, 2018. Further release dates are not currently known.
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