![]() And we did, we were attentive to each participants’ tempos and reluctancy. When you enter someone’s home with all of this gear and they’re already wary of local news crews who disregarded their stories, you have to work really hard to not recreate that. This taught me that the camera can be an extension of the self, not a barrier between yourself and the participant. Though you find these emotions through the film, they are bounded by realities of distrust, lack of safety and accountability from the city and local police department.Īs a crew, we needed to make sure that we offered acts of care before and after each interview, that we obtained consent to film at vigils and provided support when families returned to the sites where their son or sister were killed. Making a film that asks participants, or subjects, to recount memories and moments of deep grief requires all of the ingredients that make a sustainable, and gratifying, relationship work: warmth, love, trust, safety, laughter, consent and more. The process of making this film was difficult, yet it was rewarded by acts of care, diligence, and trust. would later inform how They Won’t Call It Murder would act as a container for these collective experiences.Īfter leaving the city in 2019 due to a lack of work opportunities, an opportunity to co-direct a film building off of Melissa’s extensive reporting on the city’s history of police killings with impunity sparked my interest, and I thought about the countless other victims I had heard of while living in Columbus and thought, “Now’s the time to let their stories known beyond the borders of this city.” It all unfolded from there. and Donna Dalton (the victims highlighted in the film) and many others in the surrounding Columbus area, witnessing the anger and grief of the families at protests, and supported organizers’ efforts to rally the Columbus residents. I was living in Columbus, Ohio during the murders of Henry Green, Tyre’ King, Julius Tate Jr. Raphaël: The film takes place in Columbus, Ohio, a city whose legacy with impunity toward police killings perfectly befits the name it bears: Columbus, Christopher Columbus. In documenting the sinister reality of this epidemic as it pertains to Columbus, the filmmakers highlight the ubiquity of these senseless killings across the country.įilmmaker spoke to co-directors Raphaël and Grant via email about their documentary short, touching on their individual connections to the city of Columbus, how they ensured the comfort of the mourning families involved and the oft-inconsistent definition of “accountability.”įilmmaker: What individually inspired each of you to participate in this project, and what did you all take away from this collaborative effort? They Won’t Call It Murder surveys the horrific reality of the state-sanctioned execution of marginalized civilians, insisting that the wrongful extinguishing of life cannot be rectified by any financial settlement or prison sentence. Though the film’s title refers to the fact that at the time of filming, it had been more than 20 years since a Columbus cop was charged with murder, the doc itself probes into the politics of what it looks like when justice is finally “served.” In Dalton’s case, the officer who killed her broke that 20-year streak and was actually charged with murder-a “victory” that the filmmaker’s (and Dalton’s own sister) owe to the fact that she was a white woman murdered by a Black man. ![]() It also chronicles the fight for accountability that the families of the deceased doggedly continue. The film recounts Tate’s unjust killing alongside three other victims who recently died at the hands of police in Columbus, Ohio: Henry Green, Tyre’ King and Donna Dalton. The film, embedded above, makes its online premiere today. One year later, during an anniversary vigil mourning Tate’s loss, Ingrid Raphaël, co-creator of No Evil Eye and Film Futura, and Melissa Gira Grant, a New York-based reporter covering police brutality, came together to co-direct and collaborate on They Won’t Call It Murder, a documentary short from Field of Vision that captures the enduring grief and activism that surviving families of police violence undertake. was killed during a SWAT raid by undercover Columbus police officers in December of 2018, citizens swiftly gathered to protest the unjust killing of a child. In Directing, Director Interviews, Filmmaker Videos, FilmmakingįOV, Ingrid Raphael, Melissa Gira Grant, They Won't Call It Murder
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