Tara Ariano February 13, 2017 Share February 13, 2017 Quote Explore the deadly 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas through interviews with survivors. Check local PBS listings. Link to comment
Primetimer February 15, 2017 Share February 15, 2017 Revisiting America's first mass school shooting with an innovative documentary on Independent Lens. View the full article Link to comment
Schlinkaboo February 15, 2017 Share February 15, 2017 I missed the first 15 minutes or so, perhaps it was covered, but Whitman is an interesting case study. Exhibit A: get the guns away from nutjobs. The survivors' comments about not talking about it or coming together after the fact is so different than how similar events are handled now. They seem lonely, where now we have Oprah shows and 20/20 Specials. 2 Link to comment
txhorns79 February 15, 2017 Share February 15, 2017 Quote The survivors' comments about not talking about it or coming together after the fact is so different than how similar events are handled now. They seem lonely, where now we have Oprah shows and 20/20 Specials. It's an interesting juxtaposition between now and then. In some ways, I appreciated that UT didn't treat the event as though the world had ended, or turn it into some kind of orgy of grief and reflection with big discussions of what it all means, like they seem to do now after mass shootings. 1 Link to comment
BooksRule February 16, 2017 Share February 16, 2017 I knew a little about the event (I first learned about years ago when I saw the TV movie about it with Kurt Russell as the shooter) and I saw another PBS show about it a few months ago (maybe American Experience?), but I liked that this one was different because it focused on others besides the shooter. He was only briefly mentioned at the end. The use of animation was different, but I thought it was very effective when it would abruptly switch (near the end) back and forth from the animated younger people to a live-action video of what they look like now. 2 Link to comment
formerlyfreedom February 16, 2017 Share February 16, 2017 I'd heard about this on Fresh Air with Terry Gross last week, and made the effort to watch it live last night. I have to say, I found the animation worked much better than I had thought it would. I am predisposed to be fascinated by true crime stories for some reason, and knew more than the average person about the UT Tower shooting, but by covering it from the victims and the witnesses point of view, it showed a completely different view of the story. Hats off to the filmmaker! I've already started searching out the pieces in Texas Monthly. 3 Link to comment
StatMom February 18, 2017 Share February 18, 2017 (edited) That was a very affecting doc. I agree that the montage of more recent shootings was unnecessary. I liked better how they left unspoken the comparison to modern day collective reactions. The contrast is evident enough. And although I do appreciate the "let's move past this quickly and get on with our lives" approach, it seems like some of these survivors might have appreciated being able to rehash these events at some earlier time. Sarah, was it you who mentioned on EHG the relative lack of acknowledgement of these events back then? Maybe there's a happy medium between a "grief orgy" (perfect term) and pretend like stuff like this didn't happen at all. ETA: It may have been Fresh Air where they talked about the shooting not being mentioned in the yearbook, etc. Edited February 18, 2017 by StatMom Link to comment
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