Program 2: Travis Wilkerson, Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?

This West Coast premiere of Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? will be presented with live on-stage narration by director Travis Wilkerson.

“…one of the most rigorous and intelligent American documentarians…”

—Amy Taubin, Artforum

“It’s hard not to experience Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? and not get shivers up your spine — from fear, from anger and from the beauty of Wilkerson’s filmmaking.”

—Bilge Ebiri, The Village Voice

In 1946 in Dothan, Alabama, black
American Bill Spann was murdered by S.E. Branch, a white southerner, and
great-grandfather of filmmaker Travis Wilkerson. Branch suffered no lasting
consequences, while Spann’s existence has been all but erased. Wilkerson’s
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
(2017) is a harrowing, confrontational,
deeply personal documentary investigation of this incident, a Southern Gothic
murder mystery directly addressing white racism in America, past and present.
Including the filmmaker’s family photos, home movies, news reports, and
documents, as well as original interviews and photography of the now-haunted
locations Branch and Spann inhabited, the film
presents a complex and confessional portrait of lingering family legacies, secrecy, and shame. This powerful
work is not to be missed.

— San Francisco Cinematheque

Find full Program 2 details here.