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"This story was so dynamic that Paramount said," We want you to do 12 hours, "we would have had more than enough material to fill it," says director Jenner Furst of the docuseries.
Trayvon Martin, age 17, has been fatally wounded by a neighborhood watchman, George Zimmerman, in Florida for more than six years. The New Docuseries Rest in Power: The story of Trayvon Martin plunges into tragedy, as well as the media coverage, the public outcry and the political reaction that ensues.
"It was the number one story in America and this, surprisingly, does not result in a deep cover," says co-director Jenner Furst. Along with Julia Willoughby Nason, Furst spent a year collecting images and interviewing the series to build a more nuanced and complex narrative than the one immediately following Martin's murder, and the Zimmerman trial
was already directed the docuseries Time: The Kalief Browder Story who debuted on Netflix and earned the filmmakers a Peabody Award. For Rest in Power they associate again with the executive producer Jay Z.
Before the first of July 30 on the Paramount network, Furst talks with THR docuseries.
After Finishing The Kalief Browder Story Did you know that you wanted to tell the story of Trayvon Martin in the same medium?
You open this door to these incredibly deep and complex questions in America. We had the impression that even though we had explored part of our criminal justice system, there was a bigger story to tell about American racism, about our original sin as a country, about how these Predatory systems are the color, and how all this is in the DNA of this country. When we started hearing about the book written by Tracy [Martin] and Sabrina [Fulton] we were told about the Paramount project that was negotiating to get it. It sounded like an extension of what we were doing with Kalief
Why a documentary on a feature-length documentary?
The docuseries finally have their time. When I worked on Brick City over ten years ago, when I packed this show, there was something that was [beginning to] happened in non-television fiction. It was not reality TV and it was not a documentary either. In a limited series of six to eight hours, you tell a whole story, you live parts of this story that a feature does not allow. This story was so dynamic that Paramount had said, "We want you to do 12 hours," we would have had more than enough material to fill it. When I think of that, I just think it's incredibly short on the complexities, on the nuance. For us, six hours are really tight and this allows the viewer to digest it into segments instead of just slamming it in the throat.
The story of Trayvon was largely covered by nocturnal and printed news. the story did you mean that you have never seen this cover?
The evening news and incredible engravers had covered it thoroughly, but the speed with which this cover was generated left a lot to be desired. of things on the floor. There were a lot of things that were incredibly fascinating, or disturbing, or worth reporting and that did not have the time to make themselves known, did not have the time to 39 to be controlled. So, by embarking on a project of ten to twelve months, we were able to take all the tracks that had been written and we were able to dive deeper into the story and give the kind of context that the daily news can not
Of course, we worked with Trayvon's family. There was always an answer to the character of Trayvon because of the negative press, and it is very unfortunate that we had to humanize Trayvon – it's a human being – we should not have to humanize him. But, because of the negative coverage, there was that kind of ebb from saying, "No, he was a good kid." Look, he was going to be a pilot, he was a star football player, he was very smart. He was very courteous – what we were able to do was start from scratch and let his family tell us who he was.
What do you mean by "humanizing" Trayvon?
When I think of myself at this age, of course, I had problems in high school.The difference is that I did not have a German Shepherd and a police officer who patrolled the hallways of my school. High school and hanging me for two weeks.The white privilege is at the heart of everything here.The white privilege means that your humanity is constantly valued at a higher rate than the humanity of an African American person. When we talk about "humanizing" Trayvon, it's a reflection of the privilege white, in the sense that we do not even consider having to humanize a white teenager. We did not have to humanize JonBenet Ramsey. We did not need to humanize Natalee Holloway. But the fact that we had to humanize Trayvon Martin is emblematic of the racism in this country and the white supremacy that is at stake because it has been intrinsically demonized by racism systems in this country, so we have to go back and humanize it. And it's a very sad thing.
As Non-Black Filmmakers – With Your Recognized Privileges and Inherent Prejudices – How did you make sure to tell this story with precision and sensitivity? ]
I think the first step of a process like this is that, if you are a white American, [you must] stop and acknowledge – whether you like it or not, that you have it. intent to be or not – you are racist. I never, in my life, wanted to be racist. I have never felt that I was better than a person because of the color of my skin. But the fact that I grew up in America and look white at a glance gave me a lot of privilege. So, rather than constantly covering up "Oh, how privileged I am, how partial am I, how am I racist?", Start all the way down and recognize that any white American, even an immigrant, will Anyone who is not black, is different from an American black because of the way this country has formed. There is bias, there is inherent racism, and there is also some degree of ignorance, when it comes to these factors, in people.
[White America’s] the comfort was disturbed. And in this vulnerability, is the real anti-racist work. For us, we tried to be vulnerable. We tried to be wrong. We tried to be anything but righteous and reckless, approaching this story. There have been many times when our vulnerability has taught us a lesson. And I hope that viewers, I'm talking about white Americans in particular, can move away from feelings of pride, veiled guilt and white guilt about these issues and they can admit that the fact to be black in America is very different than to be white. And as white Americans, we have many privileges and it is up to us to disrupt this privilege to make a better and more equal society. That's where Julie and I came from and hope it shows through the room
While the murder of unarmed black teenagers continues to be covered, how do you expect that the media coverage be amended?
unhappy that the black death has become a show in America. We passed the epiphany moment as a country, when things began to be documented in a much more thoughtful way and the coverage really penetrated the consciousness of people. Now we are at a point with Donald Trump and the endless barrage of bad news that people are apathetic.
Unfortunately, the evening news is an assault on the senses of people. If [viewers] can have no context and can not feel humanly, he can not be motivated to change it. I think we need to continually do deeper, more contextual work at the grassroots level to help people participate in the conversation and help them see what is happening in their local communities and help them do the work necessary to change them. . . Because if we focus on reporting and focus solely on the show – this unfortunate and tragic spectacle of the black death in America – we will certainly miss the kind of work that needs to be done to change in the country.
This interview was written and condensed.
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