Michael Chandler InterviewThe Story | ||
| Synopsis | ||
| Civil Trial | ||
| Brown vs. Board of Education | ||
The Filmmaker | ||
 | Michael Chandler Interview | |
| Michael Chandler Editorial | ||
An Interview with Producer/Director Michael Chandler
HOW DID YOU COME TO MAKE THIS FILM? CHANDLER: I started the film out of outrage at what I felt was the dismissal of the importance of the story by the press. Before USA Today did its big series on the church burnings, only sporadic stories had appeared, and those were buried deep inside the newspapers. I remember feeling that if this were 30 years ago, the story of a church burning would be front-page news, and it disturbed me that the issue was not getting the national attention it deserved. It seemed the country had entered a period of backsliding from staunch defense of civil rights, and groups were exploiting that retrenchment to act on their own darkest impulses. Remember, Oklahoma City happened only eight weeks before these burnings. After the story went big, I became very upset at the way it was just as quickly swept under the rug and dismissed as the acts of either juvenile delinquents, vengeful pastors, or the mentally unstable  in fact, anyone but overt racists. I remember one headline at the time proudly proclaiming "One-Third of Church Burnings Committed by Blacks." Unspoken was its terrifying converse. I wanted to follow a story that was undeniably racist, so that we could not ignore the fact that churches burned because of the color of their congregates' skin. While it's true that many churches in the '95-'96 spate of arsons were not burned for racist reasons, it's also true that many of them were. In my book, even one church burned out of hate was one too many. HOW WERE YOU DRAWN TO THIS FILM AND WHAT DID IT TAKE TO GET THE ACCESS YOU GOT? CHANDLER: I actually began the project before it broke into the national headlines. I'd read about the case, read about the boys being arrested with KKK cards in their wallets, and wanted to go down; I knew that there was a story here. When I went down to the South, I didn't know what kind of cooperation I would get; it took quite a while to win people's trust. Nobody who was guilty or remotely guilty of anything wanted to talk at first. But I presented them simply with the option that this would be a chance to tell their story. It took months, but they finally did open up. ONCE YOU GOT TO SOUTH CAROLINA AND STARTED TALKING TO THE PEOPLE INVOLVED, HOW DID WHAT YOU LEARNED COMPARE WITH WHAT YOU EXPECTED TO FIND? CHANDLER: I did not expect all of the perpetrators to be so closely connected to the community. Klansmen by legend are faceless figures, shrouded in sheets, who slip away anonymously into the night. But these guys were all an integral part of this small town. Tim Welch had grown up there, played with black kids as a child, even had an elderly black woman as a nanny. The "Burning Haleys" had been part of the community for two generations, and every one of the players seemed to know everyone else. What was most surprising was that these acts of violence could arise from within this close-knit town, and that all it would take was the spark of an outsider KKK Grand Dragon Horace King to ignite them. I was also surprised at the level of forgiveness within the black community. Maybe years of living in the South have fostered such a spirit as a survival skill, but it is still amazing to witness. LACK OF BETTER PROSPECTS, ALMOST MORE THAN INNATE RACISM, SEEMS TO DRAW POOR WHITES INTO THE KLAN. WHAT DO YOU THINK CAN BE DONE TO STOP THE KLAN FROM SPREADING HATE? CHANDLER: So long as poor whites-and poor people in general-have a sense that life will not get better and that their situations are hopeless, they will become fodder for groups that foster hate and search for scapegoats, usually of a different color. We have an obligation as a society to help the poor, and the price we pay for ignoring them and for reneging on social services is the unfortunate rise of hate groups.  |
