Review of DVD with bonus features - A must see re: race relations in the south
Though the name of Booker Wright is in the title of this compelling documentary, it's really the story of TWO families and THREE generations. I'll try not to spoil your watching of this film (which I highly recommend) by giving you too much information. (I hate spoiler alerts.) But you should know the basics. In 1965, filmmaker Frank De Felitta went to Greenwood, MS (a southern town in which racism was at its highest with many lynchings of blacks by the Ku Klux Klan and where "slavery" still existed - 100 years after the Civil War - in the form of cotton plantation owners virtually "owning" their "employees") to film the current social conditions for NBC News. He found one man - a black waiter - who "spoke his mind". Shortly after the film was aired that waiter (and, later, restaurant owner) Booker Wright was attacked and later murdered (two separate events). It was Wright's granddaughter who, while searching for the film shown on NBC, discovered De Felitta's son, Raymond, who - as...
One Moment Of Truth: An Unlikely Hero Exposes The Reality Of Racism In A National TV Broadcast Circa 1965
Raymond De Felitta's new documentary "Booker's Place" is both a filmmaker's personal journey and an intimate look at an unlikely hero who stepped into the national spotlight during the civil rights struggle. It is a film filled with nostalgia, regret, anger, and pride. De Felitta's father made an NBC documentary in 1965 that featured a stunning sequence in which a Greenwood, Mississippi waiter, Booker Wright, spoke candidly about his treatment as a black man in his town. Wright was no activist, but he clearly placed himself in harm's way by expressing his true feelings. Televised nationally, the piece all but destroyed Wright's life. He lost his job, his business was vandalized, he was brutalized, and he ultimately paid the highest price possible. "Booker's Place" tells the history of this story through archival footage and personal recollections. What makes this an incredibly personal tale is that it is presented by the descendents of those involved. De Felitta joins forces...
A great film
This film was obviously made by passionate film makers. Raymond De Felitta is a wonderful weaver and this story is sadly beautiful. Great music... great information. Great movie.
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