Memphis-Made Doc Set for World and Tennessee Premieres

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.

Paul Garner Watches the Watchers
seconds before being arrested

The Memphis-made documentary is set in the local and national context of 21^st 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.

 

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.