Welcome to Independent Lens.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of
PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight, we bring you a sobering story
that explores more than a hundred years
of African American lynchings and the lingering pain
these tragedies have left on our nation
with the film "Always in Season."
On August 29, 2014, Claudia Lacy got the tragic news
that her son, Lennon, was found dead,
hanging from a swing set.
Authorities called it a suicide.
But in the years that followed, Claudia became convinced
it was a lynching and has gone to painstaking efforts
to find justice for her son.
While pursuing the truth, Claudia encounters others
that have suffered similar experiences.
She also discovers a diverse group of people in Georgia,
which includes the daughter of a former Ku Klux Klan leader.
The group reenacts a heinous quadruple lynching
that took place in 1946.
The motivation behind this reenactment is two-fold:
To never let anyone forget the victims of this terrible crime
and to keep hope alive that someone will come forward
with information that might lead to justice for its victims.
Director Jacqueline Olive brings
her journalistic sensibilities to her filmmaking
as she tries to connect racial terrorism of the past
to racial violence of today.
"Always in Season" premiered in competition
at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival
and was awarded the Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency.
Olive was recently awarded
the Emerging Filmmakers of Color Award
from the International Documentary Association.
"Always in Season" is her feature film documentary debut
and it starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.