Who Will Watch the Watchers? will have its
World Premiere in Los Angeles Sept. 16 at the Justice on Trial Film Festival and will screen for the first time in Tennessee Sept. 28 at the University of Memphis.
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| Paul Garner Watches the Watchers seconds before being arrested |
The Memphis-made documentary 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.
Told as a
real-time narrative, the film tracks the struggles of young
activist Paul Garner, who is arrested for filming police then leads a grassroots
movement to seek justice at City Hall in an election year. The story’s timeline
reaches into 2017 and follows local and national events along the way.
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| Nathan Bedford Forrest monument Aug. 19, 2017 |
A STORY
OF MEMPHIS ACTIVISM
“This film tells a story about activism in Memphis and how police abridge the First Amendment, in Memphis and everywhere," said filmmaker Gary Moore. "It's a people's history and a case study of citizens trying to make change within the system. The film includes never-before-seen footage and some
content that would not make it into mainstream media.”
Filming began in
2014 after citizens were arrested while cell-phone recording police at Manna
House homeless refuge and at a Trolley Night hip-hop event. It’s an emotional roller coaster for citizens
such as Garner, organizing director at the Mid-South Peace & Justice
Center, who was arrested twice for filming police and who led Memphis United grassroots
coalition 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.
FILM
CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED
The film also
spans developments such as the 2016 Mississippi River Bridge shutdown where
Interstate 40 bisects America and the mayor’s February 2017 blacklist of citizens
who were ordered to be escorted by police if they entered in City Hall and
arrested without warning if they showed up on his lawn. The film
includes footage as recent as the Aug. 19 action opposing the Nathan Bedford Forrest
statue in Health Sciences Park.
Civil Rights hero
and Freedom Rider Dr. Rip Patton of Nashville narrates the opening and closing
sequences of the film.
The film includes
graphic violence and profanity and has not been rated by the Motion Picture
Association of America. Who Will Watch
the Watchers? will have its Tennessee Premiere Sept. 28 at the University
of Memphis.
Moore Media & Entertainment previously produced the role-reversal comedy
short, "The Suburban Itch," and is developing for television two
episodic dramatic comedies: 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.
