Who Will Watch the Watchers? Set for Free, Public Showing at 'Tennessee Premiere' Thursday Sept. 28

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Tuesday September 19, 2017 · 9:43 AM PDT

2017/09/19 · 09:43

Poster_with_graffiti_21687138_563654144025990_4406623174125484406_o.jpg — Be There or Be Square! Poster art by Paul Garner

The Memphis-made documentary Who Will Watch the Watchers? will have its “Tennessee Premiere” Thursday Sept. 28 after making its “World Premiere” in Los Angeles over the weekend at the Justice on Trial Film Festival. The Memphis showing, free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in room 250 of the Art and Communication Building, 3715 Central Avenue, on the University of Memphis campus. Free parking will be available across the street at the Holiday Inn and adjacent lots.

The documentary feature 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.

The screening is hosted by U of M student Nic Bradley's funded project, "Political Police." Bradley represented the film at the Justice on Trial festival in Los Angeles.

Told as a real-time narrative, the film tracks the struggles of Mid-South Peace and Justice organizing director 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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A STORY OF MEMPHIS ACTIVISM

“This is a people’s history of the last three years of activism in Memphis, and the pitfalls of trying to make change within the system,” said filmmaker Gary Moore. “The film includes never-before-seen footage and some content that would not make it into mainstream media.

”Who Will Watch the Watchers? is something of a ‘cousin’ to the films 13th, Fruitvale Station and Whose Streets,” Moore said.

Following the film will be a panel discussion which will include the filmmaker, Bradley, Garner and civil rights lawyer Bruce Kramer.

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, who was arrested twice for filming police and who led the Memphis United grassroots coalition in a movement to bring back the Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board. In the middle of the campaign, a Memphis police officer shot and killed unarmed teenager Darrius Stewart after a traffic stop.

Bradley_on_red_carpet_21752039_575538216130396_1689952283345273175_n.jpg — Nic Bradley represents at Justice on Trial Film Festival in LA

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.

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.

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Who Will Watch the Watchers? Set for Free, Public Showing at 'Tennessee Premiere' Thursday Sept. 28

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