Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?

—This is more an experience than a film. Travis Wilkerson narrates his work live, sitting just stage right of the screen in front of his laptop while a mix of interviews, images, and home-movies are displayed. Wilkerson had heard that S.E. Branch, his great-grandfather who operated a store in Dothan, AL, had killed a black man named Bill Spann in 1946. Information was sketchy and no one really wanted to talk about it, so the “film” is a recounting of his journey of discovery, but he spends little time on the killing itself. Instead he focuses on the men themselves and on their families, turning the “film” into a look at two families, one black and one white. The live narration makes the experience all the more personal and riveting. The title comes from Phil Och’s song “William Moore”: “Did you wonder who had fired the gun? Did you know that it was you who fired the gun?” and Wilkerson seems to accuse all whites of being responsible for all racism, past and present. Whether you agree or not, the look at the Branch and Spann’s descendants living parallel by decidedly very different lives raises lots of issues worth considering. This is a film/performance I'm glad I saw. (Shown/performed at True/False Film Fest 2017.)

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[2017. 70 min. Directed by Travis Wilkerson. Live narration by Travis Wilkerson.]
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-true-false-gun-wilkerson-20170304-story.html/