Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, May 18: SOUTHERN RITES
Gillian Laub’s investigation into the complexity of race relations in the American South made its debut at Hot Docs last month. The film now has its broadcast premiere on HBO.
Six years ago, Laub, a noted photographer, published a series of photographs in The New York Times Magazine on the shameful continued practice of racially segregated high school proms in Montgomery County, Georgia. Bowing to the public pressure that ensued, the school district decided to integrate the prom the following year, but when Laub returned to document the event, it was made very clear that she was not welcome, as shown in the opening scene of her film. Instead, she switched her attention to two separate, only tangentially related stories, both reflecting the region’s still troubling relationship to race: the nearby murder of 22-year-old African American Justin Patterson by Norman Neesmith, an old white man, and the efforts of Calvin Burns, the county’s first African American chief of police, to seek the seat of sheriff. The bulk of Laub’s film details the circumstances and the aftermath of the first of these, which turns out to be more complicated than one might initially imagine, but nevertheless hinges on ingrained, even unconscious, assumptions about race that lead to tragic, unnecessary violence. The second thread, which finds the supremely qualified Burns facing off against an opponent with zero law enforcement experience, speaks to the same racial politics still in play in the county that enabled the Patterson/Neesmith case. Despite the welcome presence of Burns’ outspoken, frustrated daughter Keyke, this storyline, like the forestalled prom coverage, never quite comes together here, and feels underdeveloped compared to the more compelling primary story that Laub explores. Nevertheless, the film, like Laub’s original prom portraits, sheds much needed light on a powder keg issue.
what (not) to doc 