Noticias

Exhuming the bodies of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner (top); Baptist preacher and convicted murderer Edgar Ray Killen (bottom) Neshoba: The Price Of Freedom Q&A with Filmmakers Micki Dickoff, Tony Pagano: Part I Would you say most people in Mississippi (and in Neshoba County) believe that justice has been served, or…? Is there a "color line" (or perhaps a "political line"?) dividing people in the way they see the outcome of the Killen trial? Dickoff: Many Neshoba Countyans, blacks and whites, are relieved and proud that some measure of justice was meted out in this case. However, some white citizens believe the trial of an 80-year-old man was a waste of time and money and another stain on Mississippi. Ben Chaney sums it up best: “It may take another 50 years before all these people die out” for real change to happen. Race...

Directed, produced, and edited by Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano, Neshoba: The Price of Freedom offers a unique peek into the mind of an unrepentant racist, Edgar Ray Killen. Killen, a Baptist preacher and the leader of a group of Klansmen accused of brutally murdering civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Neshoba County, Miss., in June 1964, is the only person ever convicted of the heinous crime known as the "Mississippi Burning" murders. "The tools used to tell the tale (particularly old newsreels, family photos and seldom-seen crime scene and autopsy photos) are masterfully employed," says Ernest Hardy in the L.A. Weekly. "Within the first 15 minutes, Dickoff and Pagano milk tear ducts (iconic newsreel footage of a young Ben Chaney weeping as he sings ‘We Shall Overcome’ at his brother’s funeral has lost none of its power to devastate), and then use that...

The 1964 murder of civil-rights activists Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney outside Philadelphia, Mississippi—the seat of Neshoba county—brought the deadly intractability of the segregated South home to many, particularly in the North. Nearly half a century later, Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano’s documentary Neshoba: The Price Of Freedom, brings it home again with determination, if not much invention. Goodman and Schwerner, both Jewish activists from New York, met up with Chaney, a young but experienced organizer in Mississippi’s African-American community, as part of the Freedom Summer, a concerted effort to register blacks who were ...

For this week's Doc Talk I'd like to spotlight two highly recommended films involving the South: Ross McElwee's personal ancestry exploration from 2003, Bright Leaves, and Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano's civil rights film Neshoba: The Price of Freedom, which finally gets a theatrical release this Friday (in NYC; next month it opens in La).

The reason I revisited McElwee's film is primarily because of the recent death of Oscar-winning screen legend Patricia Neal (Hud), who appears briefly in the doc. But it also ended up fitting in somewhat with Neshoba, because both films deal with a Southern history, both concern events that previously inspired fictionalized Hollywood movie plots (Bright Leaf for the former, Mississippi Burning the latter) and both follow modern stories relative to the historical material.

As for Neshoba, aside from the fact that it opens this weekend, I was intrigued about the film's subject matter...

Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano's "Neshoba: The Price of Freedom," which won several best documentary awards at regional festivals throughout the U.S. will get a theatrical release in New York and La beginning this Friday at New York's Cinema Village. A Los Angeles and Pasadena release will follow in September. The film's synopsis from the film's distributor, First Run Features: "In 1964, a mob of Klansmen murdered three civil rights workers ...

Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano's "Neshoba: The Price of Freedom," which won several best documentary awards at regional festivals throughout the U.S. will get a theatrical release in New York and La beginning this Friday at New York's Cinema Village. A Los Angeles and Pasadena release will follow in September. The film's synopsis from the film's distributor, First Run Features: "In 1964, a mob of Klansmen murdered three civil rights workers ...

Neshoba: The Price of Freedom will have its Us theatrical premiere in New York City on Aug. 13 at Cinema Village. Los Angeles will follow suit on Sept. 10. Directed by Micki Dickoff and Tony Pagano, Neshoba: The Price of Freedom delves into both the legacy and the story behind the disappearance and murder of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, three civil rights workers who became victims of a mob of Klansmen in Neshoba County, Mississippi, at the beginning of the Freedom Summer in June 1964. Forty-one years later, the state convicted only one man in the killings, 80-year-old Baptist preacher Edgar Ray Killen. According to the Neshoba: The Price of Freedom press release, Dickoff and Pagano "gained unprecedented access to Killen, following him from shortly after his indictment through his trial. For the first time, the film captures the outspoken views of a Klan member charged with...

It took a while, but finally the complete and final 2010 Black Harvest Film Festival in Chicago has been announced. Over 40 movies in every category from feature film to shorts, documentaries, dramas (such as Bilal’s Stand pictured), comedies and everything else in between. All the films will be screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago located at 164 N. State St in the heart of downtown Chicago.

Opening night is Friday August 6th and the festival continues throughout the month until Thursday Sept. 2 with a special advance screening of Tanya Hamilton’s Night Captures Us with Ms. Hamilton present. Of course I will be there too on most nights, so if you ever had the desire to punch me out for any of my articles on S & A now here’s your chance. (Not that I encourage it though…)

The complete list below:

The Gene Siskel Film Center welcomes...