Heads Up: Our president is hosting an on-line screening of the movie Till, about Emmett Till, this afternoon at 5 pm. The film itself can be rented on various sites like YouTube, Apple, Prime, Vudu etc. for $5.99.
The White House event is just an introductory speech by President Biden. I hope you take the tine to watch the trailers.
On one hand, I feel like I can’t bear to watch this story, but it’s apparently more the story if Till’s mother. Either way, I feel like I need to bear witness.
It’s not entirely clear whether we will get to see the film itself (at the youtube embed below) or perhaps will only see all the guests that will be attending. The fact that there is video from the white house makes me think we will see the film itself, but that is not certain.
Lordy, these women are so much stronger than I am, the mothers who lose their sons to racial violence, to school massacres, and take their pain and their grief and turn it into determination that the world is going to know what happened and is not going to forget their children. Not only mothers, of course, but especially mothers, it seems to me.
Director’s Trailor
Open thread.
WaterGirl
Not related to the movie, but this is me waiting for the GA release today. I know it won’t name names, but there will be lots of reading of tea leaves.
WaterGirl
Lots of hope for re: the GA release, read the replies to this tweet.
WaterGirl
Wow. I just watched the first trailer. Heartbreaking and rage-inducing.
edit: sobbing after watching the second trailer.
Old School
The movie Till is going to be live-streamed this afternoon?
gvg
I am not finding any info that says it is being streamed On line, just that it is being shown at the White House.
Betty Cracker
WaPo has the Fulton County release. I found it underwhelming, but YMMV. [PDF]
Redshift
@WaterGirl:
Benjamin Wittes posted about how the information that’s public now (maybe as part of the judge’s order?) refers to a “roster” of who the grand jury thinks are possible targets for indictment. We won’t get the names, but his comment was that “roster” doesn’t sound like one or two.
Redshift
@Betty Cracker: I expected it to be underwhelming (because that’s what’s best for the prosecution, and Willis thought the release was fine.) So I guess I’m about as whelmed as I expected?
WaterGirl
@Old School: @gvg:
That appears to be the case. It’s on Biden’s schedule, and they don’t normally have a video for Biden events unless there’s something to watch.
So I can’t be 100% certain, but it does look like we will be able to watch at the youtube embed at the top.
Betty Cracker
@Redshift: Good point; I suppose where the release lands on the “whelming” scale depends on prior expectations. I haven’t paid any attention to the hype for this release, but I understand there was some.
WaterGirl
@Redshift: Interesting to see that not every grand jury juror had to be there every time. “As availability allowed.” If they had 16 of the 24, they could have the official proceedings.
Old School
According to the Fulton Co. grand jury, “no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election.”
Who would have guessed?
WaterGirl
@Redshift:
Where? I looked on Lawfare blog and on his twitter, and didn’t see anything.
Elizabelle
Thank you for the head’s up on Till. Will try to catch it.
Good for President Joe.
UncleEbeneezer
I believe you can rent Till on YouTube, Apple, Vudu etc. for $5.99. Looks really great. And a FB friend of mine did the make-up for the film!
prostratedragon
@UncleEbeneezer: Also Prime.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: So maybe Biden’s video will sort of be promoting the film, rather than showing it to us.
His guests at the screening will obviously get to watch the movie.
UncleEbeneezer
I wasn’t expecting much from this Fulton release. Not surprised by the Perjury recommendations. GA law makes that a felony with sentence of 1-10 years. Hopefully, some people will get indicted, though my understanding is that perjury is really hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt.
UncleEbeneezer
Allison Gill reading the tea leaves of Fulton County pre-release, suspects that Trump may be charged:
“THREAD: JUDGE DROPS A HINT THAT FANI WILLIS WILL INDICT DONALD TRUMP: Hello! Judge Mcburney recently ruled that the Georgia special purpose grand jury report cannot be released in full. In his explanation as to why – there’s a hint that Donald will be indicted. 1/…”
Gin & Tonic
Marina Yankina, head of procurement for the russian military’s western district, has been defenestrated in St Petersburg. Yes, literally.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Tragic accident.
MomSense
@Baud:
Russia has the worst windows.
sukabi
@Gin & Tonic: slipped in the bathtub?
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Suicide.
Paul in KY
The white woman at center of this horrible story lives in Bowling Green, KY. Yay! Bowling Green is a nice town. Home of WKU. Sad she has never faced any official retribution for being an accessory/conspirator to that kid’s horrible murder.
UncleEbeneezer
Some things never change. See how familiar these look; A couple excerpts from Mothers of Massive Resistance:
• “Faced with defending the brutal murder of a black child, some female segregationists turned to conspiracy theories, denying the body was Till’s. In North Carolina, Nell Battle Lewis doubted that the corpse was in fact that of young Emmett Till. A Mississippi woman rationalized the decision by claiming that if Till had been murdered, ‘every responsible white person would find it a horrid crime and miscarriage of justice’; since there was no outcry, it was not Till, her reasoning went, suggesting that there had been no murder. Instead Lewis and Ogden among others referred to the murder as an “alleged killing,” and Lewis suggested the whole setup looked like an NAACP conspiracy. When Look magazine ran the confessions of the white men who murdered Till just a few months after they were acquitted, Lewis offered no comment.”
• “One North Carolina woman even applauded the events in Mississippi. ‘The boy in Mississippi was no child‘ she wrote; ‘he knew how to insult a woman.’ ‘Do you condone such conduct?’ she asked. ‘Certainly the men of Mississippi do not.'”
The author also notes that the fact that Till had shown a photograph of his white-passing girlfriend was also probably a big factor in why he was targeted. When a local movie theater owner bought the rights to the story in an effort to make a movie, a prominent segregationist warned:
• “She asked if Mississipians if they would stand ‘silently by and allow Mr. Royal or any other movie producer to show a film which will stir up racial fires, divide our people, render us impotent?'”
Redshift
@WaterGirl:
On Dog Shirt Daily, his substack (down toward the bottom.) Now that I’m looking at it, apparently “roster” did come from the judge’s order.
WaterGirl
@Redshift: Thank you.
Steeplejack
But first President Biden is supposed to address us about the UFO balloons at 2:00 p.m. Watch the skies!
Msb
Very glad to hear this. Hope the audience had lots of Kleenex.
I saw this movie in a theatre, and it deserves a big screen. Hard to watch but both necessary and beautifully made, the story covers both the lynching and the strength and beauty of the black community. Its omission from Oscar nominations, especially Danielle Deadwyler for Best Actress, is an outrage.