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| Paul Garner films police seconds before they arrest him on MLK Day 2017 Photo by Aaron Murphy, Hive Swarm News & Media |
The film is set
in the local and national context of 21st Century hot topics, such
as filming police, Black Lives Matter, dissent in the Trump era and citizens
getting “woke” to a society that leaves many behind.
Who Will Watch the Watchers? will have its
World Premiere in Los Angeles Sept. 15 at the Justice on Trial Film Festival.
Told as a
real-time narrative, rather than an archival-type documentary, the film tracks
the grassroots movement of Memphis United to revive citizen oversight of police
through City Hall in an election year.
The film timeline reaches into 2017 and follows local and national events
along the way.
“This is a people’s story, a
people’s history, of citizens trying to make change within the system and
seeking to fix the police-community divide,” said filmmaker Gary Moore. “The
film examines the expanding ways we have seen police, due to dash cams and cell
phones, and ways law enforcement and politicians counter free
speech and deflect their own accountability.
“The film
includes never-before-seen footage and some content that would not make it into
mainstream media. ”
Filming took
place over a three-year period and began after citizens were arrested while
filming police, such as at Manna House homeless refuge and a Trolley Night
hip-hop event. It’s a roller coaster for
citizens such as Paul Garner, organizing director at the Mid-South Peace &
Justice Center, who was arrested for filming police, then led Memphis United in
a movement to bring back the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board. In the middle of the campaign, a Memphis
patrolman shot and killed unarmed teenager Darrius Stewart after a traffic stop. The film also spans developments such as the
Hernando DeSoto Bridge shutdown in 2016 and the city’s February 2017 blacklist,
or A-List, of citizens who were ordered to be escorted by police while in City
Hall.
Civil Rights hero
and Freedom Rider Dr. Rip Patton of Nashville narrates the opening and closing
sequences of the film.
The film has not
been rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. It includes graphic violence and profanity.
Members of the
discussion panel will be named later.
Audience members
also will be invited to provide feedback and criticism to the filmmaker via a
voluntary survey.
Moore Media & Entertainment previously produced the role-reversal comedy
short, "The Suburban Itch," and is developing for television two
episodic dramatic comedies which could be shot in Tennessee: In The Pregnant
Prick, a womanizing member of Congress changes his ways after he becomes
pregnant -- due to global warming, scientists prove. Second Coming
is a what-would-Jesus-really-do series in which Jesus returns to Earth and
exposes a televangelist and a crooked politician.
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