02/01/19 02/01/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from the sundadance film festival in park city, utah, this is democracy now! >> i was really inspired to write "clemency" the morning after troy davis was executed. so many of us were sad, frustrated, angry. i thought, if we are all dealing with these emotions, what must it be like for the people who left to kill him? what i is it like for your livelihood to be tied taking human life? amy: as texas carries out the

nation's first execution of t te year, we look at a new feature filmlm starring alfre woodard tt examines the death p penalty frm the perspective of the executioners as well as the condemned. we will speak to the film's director, the gegerian-americann writiter-director chininonye ch. then to "always inin season." >> lynching, for more than a century, was the ultimate tool of racial terrorism. it was the way on a continuum of tactics to maintain white supremacy. it was a wayay to keep black people policing themselves. it was the ultimate e terrorism. amy: as we mark the beginning of black history month, we turn now -- we turn to a disturbing new documentary that centers on the death of lennon lacy, a 17-year-old african-american student who was fofound hangingn 2014 from a swingsgset in a lare white trailer park in north carolina. we will speak to lacy's mother, as well as the director of

--jacqueline olive. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. "the wall street journal" is reporting the ouster of venezuelan president nicolas maduro is the first ststep in na trumpet ministrations plan to reshape latin america with cuba next on its radar. according to the repeport, the u.s. is planning to announce new measures against cuba, including sanctions on restoring cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. the move could seriously hamper foreign investment in cuba. the u.s. and plans to target nicaragua. in november, national l security adviser john bolton dubbed the three nations the troika of tyranny. last week vice president mike , said president trump is not a

fan of u.s. interventions abroad, exexcept for "in this hn is fair." self-declared president juan guaido said he is reached out to russia and china. refused his come to be president. orders reporting the maduro government plans to sell gold from central bank vaults to the united arab emirates for cash, as new sanctions from the u.s. threaten to further cripple the country's economy. there are also reports the venezuela owned oil company citgo is considering filing for bankruptcy. on thursday, hundreds of workers from the state-owned oil company marched in caracas in support of president maduro. this is the vice president delcy rodriguez addressing crowds at the march. >> all masks have been removed from donald trump, from his vice president, the dislocated mike,

from the national security visor john bolton come all without exception have said they're coming for the oil of venezuela. and what is our response you echo yankee hands off our industry. they will not come to take our oil. amy: the trump administration is expected to o formally withdrawo the landmark intermediate range nuclear forces or inf treaty. president ronald reagan and gorbachevevt leader signed the treaty. critics won the u.s. withdrawal could spark a new nunuclear arms race. the u.s. has accused russia of noncompliance with the deal. the withdrawal could take effect six month after official notice is given. for a month independent senator bernie sanders introduced legislation thursday that would lower the threshold for paying a state tax on inheritance, which is now at $11 million after the passage of the 2017 tax bill. the measure would lower the of assets after

which the estate tax would apply. the same level as in 2009. the change would only affect the richest .2% of americans and the revenue would help pay for social programs like medicare for all. the measure comes after other high profile democrats introduced their own tax proposals on the wealthiest americans. last week 2020 presidential hopeful senator elizabeth warned proposed ultra-millionaire tax while alexandra cortes has been advocating for a 70% top marginal tax rate. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell advanced a measure thursday opposing the withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria and afghanistan, in a rare c challee to president trumpmp. the non-bindininmeasure dedeclad that the islamic state was still active and a threat to u.s. interests. it was backed by most republican senators while democrats remained split on the measure, with critics saying it could unnecessarily prolong the wars. with two weeks left before

another governmement shutdown deadline, president trump dodoue dodown on his demand for border wall funding thursday, dismissing the above partisan conference committee currerently in talks to come up with an agreement that both trump and congress will approve before february 15. he said republicans on the committee are wasting their time. pres. trump: we set the stage for what is going to happen on the 15th of february. i don't think that will make a deal. they're all saying, let's do this, but we're not giving one dime to the wall. amy: nancy pelosi reiterated there would be no funding for a physical wall and the committee should be allowed to do their work. meanwhile, freshman progressive wrote a letters calling on their democratic colleagues to cut, not increase funding for the department of homeland security as part of any upcoming funding deal. the letter, which is expected to be read on the house floor in the coming weeks, reads -- "the upcoming budget procecess will be a critical opppportunity

to take up conversations about reforms to the agency. in the meantime, not another dollar." a federal court in washington, d.c., found the syrian government responsible for the 2012 killing of celebrated u.s. war reporteter marie:. she died in syria after a direct strike on a building where she was staying with other journalists. the court ordered syria to pay $300 million in punitive damages . her family brought the lawsuit against the syrian government, saying they targeted her hours after she broadcast live from the building on cnn and spoke of indiscriminate shelling by the assad government, french photojournalist remi ochlik also died in the attack. according g to the committee to protect journalists, at leleast 126 journalists have been killed covering the conflict in syria. in somalia, u.s. airstrike killed 24 al shabab fighters according to u.s. military wednesday officials. the air raid is the so far this ninth year.

at least u.s. 45 air raids on al shabab targets were carried out in 2018. earlier this month, al shabab militants attacked a hotel in kenya, resulting in the deaths of at least 21 people, plus five assailants. the environmental protection agency is expectcted to refrain from setting limits on harmful chemicals found in drinking water, raising alarm among public health advocates and some lawmakers. these chemicals are the same as those found in common household products, such as teflon and scotch-guard. scientists have linked the a number of diseases, including cancer. in boston trial in under way , a against pharmaceutical executives who prosecutors say ran a criminal enterprise by bribing doctors to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray to patieients who dididn't need. john kapoor, the founder of insys therapeutics, and four other drug executives, are accused of organizing fake speaking events to pay and influence doctors. one of the defendants allegedly gave a lap dance to a doctor at a company event in order to persuade him to prescribe the

drug. details have emerged about how the department of homeland security set up a fake college in michigan as part of an elaborate sting operation to crack down on immigration violatioions. the website of the univiversityf farmington claimed to be a nationally accredited business and stem institution. but in fact, the school did not exist. earlier this week student , eight recruiters were indicted conspiring to help foreign citizens enroll in the fake school in an attempt for them to remain in the country illegally. in addition, immigration agents have arrested about 130 people who attempted to enroll in the school. in texas, ice agents have been force-feeding immigrant six prisoners who are on hunger strike at no pass oh detention center. -- at an el paso detention center. nearly 30 men in total are believed to be participating in the strike. they say they are refusing food to protest verbal abuse, lengthy wait times behind bars, and

deportation threats from prison guards. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is openly criticizing a new house bill t that woululde election day a federal holiday. >> this is a democrat plan to destroy -- restore democracy? a brand-new week of paid vacation for every federal employee who would like to hover around while you cashed your ballot? a washington-based, tax subsidized clearinghouse for political campaign funding? a power grab. amy: in response, new york senator kirsten gillibrand tweeted -- "voting isn't a 'power grab.' it's democracy, and it's literally the entire point of our representative government. and by the way -- not only should election day be a federal holiday, we need automatic voter registration and universal mail voting, too." the majority of democracies hold general elections on the weekend, while some others which hold elections on a weekday, have made the public holiday.

-- have made thehe day a p publc hoholiday. the websitjezezebel is reporortg the fbi told law enforcement of so-called pro-abortition extremists in a 2017 domestic terrorism briefing. the briefing warned of both pro-choice and pro-life extremists, even though only anti-abortion advocates have been found guilty of violence and criminal activity based on their beliefs, including death threats and at least 12 murders of medical providers since 1993. the briefing was revealed by the government transparency group property of the people. it also reseller revealed the fbi surveillance california-based civil rights group by any means necessary for domestic terrorism after they protested a white supremacist rally in 2016. documents revealed language by the fbi pretraining the group's members as possible terror threats while saying "the kkk consisted of members that some perceived to be supportive of a white supremacist agenda." in texas, cacatholic leaders idenentified 286 priest's who we

accused of sexually abusing to 1950.dating back the revelation is the l latest n the ongoing sexual abuse crisis rocking the catholic church all stop it is not fair of any priest in texas will be prosecuted. and new jersey senator cory booker has announced he will run for president in 2020. he was the mayor of newark for becoming a senator. he is advocated for criminal justice reform and was the cosponsor of the first step act. he also called for legalizing marijuana. yes face criticism from the left for his relationship with the pharmaceutical industry and wall street and in 2014 was the top recipient of wall street money, according to the center for responsive politics. in 2017, he announced he would pac contributions and has come out i in support of bernie sanders medicare for all program. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we're broadcasting from the sundance film festival in park city, utah.

as the statete of texas this wek carried out the nation's first execution of the year, we look at "clemency," a new film starring of reworded that examines the death the penalty. portrays bernadine williams. it grapples with what it means to be part of a system of state-sanctioned murder as the execution date for anthony woods, played by aldis hodge, gets closer. the nigerian american writer director chinonye chukwu says she was inspired to take on the subjbject after the executioionf troy anthony davis, who was put to death by the state of georgia september 21, 2011. davivis' execution was carried t despite major doubts about evidence used to convict him of the killing of police officer

mark macphail. his death helped fuel the national movement to abolish the death penalty. well, i sat down with chinonye she began byukwu thursday. talking about why she made this film. >> i was inspired to write "clemency" the morning after troy davis was executed. i know you have done a lot of work leading up to his execution . hundreds of thousands of people around the world were protesting against his execution, including a handful of retired wardens and directctors of correction. they wrote a letter to the governor urging clemency on not just the grounds of potential innocence, but also because of the emotional and psychological consequences they knew killing troy would have on the prison staff sanctioned or do so. the morning after he was executed, so many of us were set and frustrated and angry. i thought if we are all dealing with these emotions, what must to be like for the people who acted kill him?

what is it like fofor your livelihood to be tied to the taking of human life? that was the seed that was planted. it was a way for me to enter an explororation of humanity that exists between prison walls. interestingly, the prison warden is played by offering what it, and african-american woman. woman,ical is it for a or an african-american woman, to be a warden in this country? >> it is more typical than using. the problem is a media does not represent a lot of wardens who are white men. in the state of ohio, for example, the majority of the wardens and all the prisons are black women. i only met one or twomale wardens in all of the prisons i visited. the warden in send clinton prison, which has the largest debtoror facility in the countr, was a woman for like 20 years until she retired.

there's a a female wardens association as well. it is a lot more common in people may think. amy: talk about the research you did for this film. >> i did a deep, deep for your the advocacy record to tell the story. i started in 2013 were i did secondary research, i interviewed a lot of those retired wardens and directors of corrections and death through lawyers and men who were exonerated from death row. i visited prisons and read a lot of books and articles. that was scratching the surface. i was living in n new york cityt the titime. 2014, i moved to ohio and volunteer on the clemency case for a woman who is serving a life sentence for a crime she did not commit. i worked closely with her legal team. shooting a lot of video testimonials of her and her codefendants in prison, traveling around the country videotaping national psa featuring a lot of advocates and activists converge ring clemency.

amy: and she was -- >> in dayton then cleveland. she got out over a year ago. i volunteered with different organizations for math, see appeal for 13 other women who are serving life sentences. i created a film program in the same prison tyra was incarcerated in. i taught women to make their own short films. i also talked to many more lawyers and wardens and family and friends, people directly empire did -- impacted. i asked them to redraft the script and they market up word for word. i had wardens on speed i'll, chaplains on speed dow during production who could make sure i got the details right. old, veryt out an ardent anti-death penalty activist. amy: he was the warden of the death row prison where troy anthony davis was executed. and he is the one who, among

others, appeal to the governor to vacate the death sentence for troy. >> i've been speaking with them for a couple of years. we flew him out on set. he walked actors through ththe blblocking and how to strap the men on the gurney will stop -- gurney. amy: talk about the conversations you had with the chaplains, then would come in this case, you have medics that are going to inject the three drug cocktail into the arm of the prisoner. all of thesese are extremely controversial. doctors involved with this, chaplains involved with this. were doctors willing to talk to you? i found it interesting that in the cases in the film "clemency," it was a medic -- they said they would call a doctor if there prisoner did not die very soon.

>> i spoke to medical professionals -- ththese are medical professionals who knew about the process, but who did not -- who were not directly involved i in an execution. there are states where there are medical professionals who have carried out executions. yes, it is controversial. amy: it has to be. their oath,olating do no harm. >> exactly. i know in the state of ohio, there's a legislation trying to be passed where it would make the identities of the medical professionals who agreed to do this anonymous -- confidential. there isn't that backlash. the chaplains i spoke with, they no longer are chaplains. they had to retire or moveve ino a different path of corrections. -- wasson who oversaw

there during executions, became a warden of a facility that does not carry out the death penalty. i know it was a controversial howce, but i wanted to show -- i wanted to show the different people who are implicated in this process. amy: interestingly, last week a federal magistrate judge issued an opinion likening ohio's current three drug execution process to a combination of waterboarding in chemical fire. that opinion was used by the governor to issue a six-month reprieve to death row prisoner warnke can us. talk about use of lethal injection and the chemicals -- that is the other part of it, increasingly drug companies saying, you cannot use our chemicals, our drugs to kill. >> yes. it is becoming increasingly more

difficult and controversial how they get the drugs. in my resesearch, there are more and more prison facilities getting them off the black market. i have talkeked to a lot of deah row lawyers who are using that as a way -- as part of their argument for cruel and unusual punishment. the lack of the drugs and the shadiness involved in getting the drugs, i found that is starting to be incorporated into legagal arguments for clemency. amy: talk about the medics and the doctors who do this. >> in my research, i found in some botched executions i study -- join amy: like oklahoma. >> clayton locket, i believe his name was. i remember a conversation with dr. alan alt when he was given me feedback on the script and he was giving me notes on the opening execution scene and dr. alan alt who had consulted on

many executions, including in the state of texas, he was surprised i had included a medical professional because he had worked in facilities where it was corrections officers that were inserting the needle. amy: corrections officers ininserting a needle, nonmedicil professionals? >> and they would practice on oranges. practiced many, many, many, many, many times before the execution. i chose not to include that and have medical personnel because that does happen in some facilities. i was realally struck by that. amy: "clemency" director chinonye chukwu. we will be back with her after break. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the sundance film festival in park city, utah, as we return to my conversation w with "clemency" director chinonye chukwu. talk about the first execution, a latino man in the film. as i'm sure you know, black and brown people are disproportionately incarcerated. they are disproportionately put on death row and put to death once on death row. i was very intentional about representing that in the film. the first botched execution, it was important to show what can

happen. and to show the layers of complexities in the process. and that is this shadow cast over the entire film as a possibility that can happen again and again and again. and that really is fueling conflict.s in ago she is played by alfre woodard. what was elected director? >> she is one of ourur greatest living actors. is aing her perform on set master class in acting. she channeled something in this role. i was really excited to give her into her brilliance and give her time and let the camera fit with her. into her craft. amy: after the premiere, alfre woodard talked about her

experience making the film. >> when i did my research, i will with her to prisons in ohio. witht with condemned men, women in medium secure to prisons, men and maximumum security. and thee people that worked there, most important. the people that we asked to step into the breach where we don't want to go. we hammer out what we believe in capital punishment or not, meanwhile, the people who are sanctitioned with carrying those --cutions out, they have a well, they have the highest degree of ptsd that is comparable to our troops that do six to seven tours of duty in afghanistan. amy: that is actress alfre woodard, the star of "clemency." after the premiere here at sundance, in the q&a, one member

of the audience said "why did you focus on the warden?" >> i focused on the warden because -- for a couple of reasons. explore and ofllenge the system incarceration, of capital punishment through the gaze of a perpetrator of a system. i thought doing so would widen the reach and the impact of the film beyond other progressive-minded people. i think it would really people's thinking around the death penalty and around incarceration, the humanities tied to incarceration is it is not told to the lawyer, defense attorney or through protester, but summit who is part of the system, somebody who might embody the values of somebody for the death penalty

might embody. so that was my biggest reason. we have never seen this perspective before. it expands the humanities tied to incarceration. amy: talk about the lawyer who represents anthony woods, the death row prisoner. he is constantly challenging the warden. richard schiff is the actor, well-known for "west wing" another tv and films. that role and who you talked to to understand this position. -- what io the lawyer have observed, what i have found is the lawyer, particularly for people who have been incarcerated for a long time, for many people on death row, their lawyer is there one kind of link toto the outside world. their xoma's like a chosen family relationship -- sometimes. that is what richard's character embodies. that is one way that we enter anthony and get into who he is

when richards character comes into the story, anthony lets his guard down a little bit for the first time. important tot is help see anthony's humidity. i didn't know with the film to be about litigation or about the facts of the case. we never go with the lawyer beyond prison walls because it is not important. especially not important to the humanities of the story. so his character is kind of a combination of what i have observeded in all of the many lawyers i worked closelyly with the different clemency cases i volunteered for and the ones i spoke with in n the research. amy: t this is richahard schiffo .lays ththe lawawyer >> one of the great thinings abt what chinonye chukwu has created here is a story about people that are deeply affected by the processes of the state that decides to execute people. they are the ones that literally

pull the lever. they are the ones that accompany , chaperone people who are going to their deaths. and that is what is phenomenal about the story. amy: that is richard schiff on the red carpet. as your film premiered here at sundance, the state of texas executed 61-year-old robert jennings by lethal injection. it was the first of the year in , in thee, the nation state of texas that leads the country in executions. your thoughts? -- it is, i hard. that this film can challenge that. i hope that this film can really encourage people to ask the question, do we as society have the right to kill? i not ask him a should this

person die or not? do we as a society have the right to kill? when i hear about that, when a read about that, that is the first map pops in my head. amy: were these discussions you are having on? the set? >> absolutely. throw the writing of the script, preproduction. i talked about it with the cast. some of the cast had complicated views. one of the things that makes it complicated is will we personalize. i'm against the death penalty, but if anyone did anything to my mother or whatever, when i read about the man in texas bank was executed, what did he do? i need to know what he did first to determine how i feel about his execution. i had to challenge them. i said, well, you are against it or you are not. once again, it is not necessarily about determining whether or not who has the right to be seen as human, but do we as society have the right to

kill in the name of so-called justice? we did have those conversations. amy: hollywood is the land of white male directors. talk about really challenging all of this and what your experience here at sundance means, and what it means to you to be anan africanan-american wn director, really crashing through that ceiling. untilon't think about it nigerian, black people, black women, black girls reach out to me and tell me that they can see themselves in me. that me being here, me having made this film expands the possibilities. and that is when the magnitude of this really hits me. amy: talk about your background. >> i am nigerian american. i was born in nigeria. i was born in river statate, nigeria, southeast nigeria.

my parents still l live in nigeria. most of my family live inn nigeria. i grew up in a very traditional nigerian household, very connected to my culture. i grew up predominantly of fairbanks, alaska. my parents are petroleum engineers. after i was born in nigeria, we had a short stint in oklahoma. then when 06 or seven years old, we moved to alaska and i was there until i was 18. then when i i was in college a d grad school -- amy: where was that? >> temple university. i focused on screenwriting and directing. that is when my parents moved back to nigeria. there were like, the baby is good. they have been there ever since. amy: especially for young women and young women of color to hear life,ajectory of your directing alfre woodard and aldis hodge who plays anthony woods who was the death row prisoner, talk about how you

broke through to this point. where did you go from graduate school? mostjust -- one of the impactful things to my filmmaking career wawas when i s awarded a princess grace foundation grant and grad school, which was a $25,000 scholarship. amy: princess grace of monaco? >> princess grace of monaco.o. there is a lovely foundation ofre they say a handfulul students, they toward this amazing $25,000 were to make a film, their thesis film. that is what helped me make up these this, that helped me make my first feature and that helped me get a fellowship at princeton and that is where i wrote "clemency." then i got another award to the princess grace f foundation aftr the first one that help me make the short film called "a long walk." impressed film really some of the actors who

eventually signed on. along with this gripped. it was that award and that continuing to make as many short films -- i made a first feature and teaching also helped me become a better filmmaker. i just kept pushing. i had a lot of rejection. a lot of rejection. throughout the rejection, i think the biggest and most useful thing that helped me get to w where i am is that i had to learn how to not defined my worth in my joy by external success or rejection. once i'd attached from the ego of film making, i became a better film maker and i became more engaged in the craft of it and detached from our compulsive amy: you broke new ground is so many ways. the cast is honest all african-american. >> yes. i love it. they are amazing talent. whered more stories

characters of color don't have to explain their existence in the narrative, where they have the full, rich, nuanced emotional arc that are not solely defined by the race and gender. amy: and your activism in prisons. this is also unusual for a director of a film. you've spent so much time as a teacher inside prisons, working with women. explain more what you have done. >> so i have been a fellow professor for over a decade. i have been teaching college students how to tell their own stories. so when i started spending a lot of time in a prisons talking to different women incarcerated connected to the first clemency case i volunteered for, i realized that me helping p peope tell her stotories should not be confined to the privilege walls of the college classroom. i had this idea, why don't i bring my curriculum to t t prison? these are stories that need to be told. there are so many voices here

people need to tell their stories. i created a one-year curriculum and connected them to community artists who helped them edit and do a sound mix. when the films were done, we screen them all over the country. not all of the ladies in the inaugural class are out. they still continue with their films. amy: why are they in prison, more often than not? can you generalize? >> of use. amy: they are abused? >> abused women. sexual violence, physical violence that can lead to o othr issues that lead to incarceration. the abuse to prison pipeline i would say is one of the biggest reasons. amy: what most surprised youou doing this f film? > how emotionally and psychologically similar i am to , especially ins terms of their navigating

loneliness and isolation. growing up, i struggled with depression. deep, deep penetetrating loneliness and a a must at 14, wanted to take my own life. thankfully, did not. owni have navigated my kinds of darkness and had to transform our relationship to through a musth, dying. and i think that is something that bernadine and anthony in the film are also navigating. i was surprised and how -- i did not knknow that. i did not make that connection and tell we were shooting the film. i see myself in these characters, and that is how they came out with me. amy: chinonye chukwu, the director of the new dramatic film "clemency." special thanks to park city television. this is democracy now!,

democracynow.org. we will be back in 30 seconds. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broroadcasting from the sundance film festival in park city, utah. as we mark the beginning of black history y month, we turn w to a disturbing new documentary that examines lynching in the united states. it is called "always in season." interviewed, head of

the in of lacy p and the founder of the equal justice initiative, which built the national memorial for peace and justice in montgomery, alabama, to remap or the morore than 4000 african-americans lynched in the united states. this is an excecerpt of "alalwan seseason." what most people have a hard time appreciating is if you werere black and alive in ma parts this country inhehe 20 century your alys at risk. you werelwlways targ. u were aays an objecto be ctimized, humiliated, to b taunted, to be sexlly exploid,d, to killele and there was no respite. erere wanevever momentnthen you were allowedo feel like you coulbeafe or jt a ttlele wle. you were always in ssoson.

>> most blken were lyhed because ey were cused of havingexually saulted white woman, for murder, or see olenent t comtted usually aiainst white e n. but sometimes it could jt t be havivingiolatetethe rules of not having tipped oe had oraving left sidof the reet whea white pers was passing. it could be be regarded as uppity. it really involved a process of g humanization that the black man had to be physically restrained, that he was over sexualized, that he was nationally and in here only viololent -- inherently violentr something that wasotot hum. d it is is very sidious procesf dehumazation o begins alws with words that allows average individuals to stand and watch and to

participate and sometimes sheer while another human being is really murdered. amy: an excerpt from the documentary "always in season." the film was not just a this local account, it also looks of the case of lennon lacy, 17-year-old african-american high school student found hanging from two belt attached to a wooden swing set in a large white trailer park in north carolina. august 20 9, 2014. at the time of her death, she was dating an older white woman, and local authorities determine his death to be a suicide that lacy's family and local civil rights activist feared authorities may have been covering up a lynching. this is reverend william barber at the time the north carolina naacp and others have spent years trying to bring attention to lacy's death. reverendnd barber talked about e case on dedemocracy now! >> this young man was found tillt exact date him it

was killed. he was found hanging. have the wrong shoes from an inindependent have all of ththed there's no way he could've done this himself. we called for an independent investigation. amy: this week at sundance, i spoke to lennon lacy's mother claudia lacy and jacqueline olive, the director of "always in season." i began by asasking jacqueline o talk about l lynching in a amera anand why she focused on the cae of lennon lacy. >> the lynching for more than a century was the ultimate tool of racial terrorism. it was the way on a continuum of taxpayer -- tactics to maintatan whitite supracy, keeblblack people policing themseeses. was the ultimate terrosmsm. ountryfilmingcross th for fiveears werlynching happen, looki out wha peop are doi right now in their mmunitiefor juste an ronciliatn around histical lynings. on thelong-rm impac entire cmunity. i thout i was nished filming

when i came across the story of lennon lacy, 17, found hanging from a swing set in 2014. my son was 17 at t the time.e. i could not imagine how a mother could deal with h so much traum. and whwhat the community must be going through because what i have learned from filming over the years. amy: tell you the details as you understand them, when it happened in 2014, the time of day, how lennon's body was discovered. >> linen was found in a trailer park not far from his home. it was in the morning. morning, or so in the in the middle of a trailer park surrounded by probably 200 to 300 feet of trailers surrounding him. people were moving from school. it was a school day. it was a friday come august 29. people were moving from school. people were doing shift work, growing to the local factory smithfield.

yetgoing about their day, no one saw what happened. there was a 911 call about 7:15. there was a woman who made the call. lennon was 240 pounds. his body was deceased. that is heavy weight. the woman who made the 911 call is about 5'2", 125 popounds. and yet somehow she cut him down. she had scissors on her and was able to cut him down. there are all kinds of inconsistencies in what turns out to be evidence in the case. be evidence out to that was quickly brushed under the e rug. amy: claudia lacy. talk about that day. i hate to make you do this, but you have been living this every day since then. how you learned what happened to lennon. >> i was on the phone with my sister. a knock came at the door. s sheriff,officer, the

he said, i need you to come and go with me. he wouldld not going to do tell why. i got in my vehicle and followed him overer to ththe trailer par. vehicle,t out of my state burereau investigator introduced himself to meme. he said, i need you to see if this is yoyour son that we foun. the emt.de i saw my son's dead b body in therere. y: in the e main villains. >-- in the ambulance. >> yes-man. it was him. state bureau the investigator, whoever did this, it t tk more thahan one person o take him down n because my son s very phyhysical, very healthy.. like i said, he would not do this to himself because he was planning his football game, which was friday. their first home game five the year of the scschool y year on t

day. we had talked about it. it was regard to get his position.. amy: he was hoping to get a college football scholarship. >> absolutely. amy: what marks did you see on his body? >> i saw large abrasion over his eyes. i saw no dirt, no grass, no blood. ii s saw the tear ducts went don the side of his f face. i did not see any blood or anything like that. it was so dark in the emt, i i d not see the marks araround his neck and i felt them. like i said, i toucheded his bo. i'i'm like, ththis is unusuaual. it was shocking to me.. i i did not tell anyone at thehe time, but i smelled chlorine when i i was close. i got very closese. amy: like a pool. >> yes. i did not say anything to anyone about it until later on.

likeke i said, when i walked ono the scene, they were wrapping up the crime scene tape. the police were. amy: wait a second, they were wrapping it up? meaning taking it away from the swing set? >> yeses, ma'am. amy: this was withinin a an hou. >> yes, mamma. but i did not know anything about it until after 12:00. i was not notified because they did not know who he was until after 12. amicable for claudia could identify his body, they were taking down the tape. amy: the corner you feature in the film says he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt thahat lennonn lacy was murdered. how does he know? >> that is the local mortitician whwho prepared lelennon's body. he a actually knew lennon. for the first of a few days before at his uncle's funeral. in addition to talking about the bruises onon his arm that

indicated he might have been in a fight as opposed to on the back of his arm or the topop of his arm, there were many things that made him m think lennon had been murdered. he was convinced people would see that and was shocked it had gone all the way to the medical examiner's office with the assumption it was suicide. >> i want to point out, thee intervieiew with new and was the only official interview we got. we tried to ininterview the medical examiner and the da, the chief of police, no one would talk. amy: the only person who talked was -- >> the mortitician. amy: why wouldn't the others speak? theydon't know, but declined an interview. amy: would do they start saying suicide, claudia? >> the day they completed their investigation, which was proximally f four days after. if youou listen to the 911 call, when she made--

the call "she hung himseself." amy: who said that? >> the person who called 911. amy: the 1 -- >> who f found his body. she said he hung himself. suicide was then determined, if you asked me. after that, that is the way it went. they did not come e and check for any evidence of -- you know what t i'm saying? they did note ---- ququestion a any of the familyyo see if his behavior changed for any of that. there was none of that done. olive youe intersperse the, story of lennon lacy with a reenactment of lynchings and the history of lynching. if you could talk about what had been going on in the county. it is very unusual to keep the history alive of what had happened to the black community.

>> one of those communities i found was in georgia where a group of diverse group of people that get together annually to reenact the 1946 quadruple lynching of two couples, the malcolm's on the dorsey's. they do that to make sure the victims are never forgotten. the lynching was in 1946. my mom was alive in 1946. they believe some of the perpetrators may still be living there. amy: talk about this reenactment of lynching. onthe families were murdered july 2 25, 1946. around that time, that we can and monroe, which is about 40 minutes outside of atlanta, a oup of peoeople get together and dramatize scenes from the narrative of that lynching. it is their way of writing herer own history and writing their hasnarrative, history that been undocumented in some ways and incorrectly documented in others. the reenactment began on a a hot

july day. it is really hot. anything about the atlanta area about the south, so people come out and caravan from scene to scene. they began at a church that is the site of the graveveones whererthe victimwere buried. moved to the jail were one of the e ctims, geororge dorsey, w was hel anand t then they reeeect that scene. geororge dorsey hahad come homem the war and hadad got into a fight. he was a shahacropper. he got internal dictioion with --downer that he e was working he got into an altercation with a landowner that is working for. the landowner was not killed, but george dorsey was arrested. another l landowner camame to bl him out onon the pretensnse thee wawas work for t them to do. she gototd his w we and her husband rogeger malcolm anad they allll came togethther. thinkiking there we going to

work. the landowner drove emem to th amambushn the e brge. the finall scene of the reenactment happens in thahat se with the lynyning actualllly happened.. amy: you a are talking a about publicic spectacles and lynynin, not in this case, but opople came from miles around, sometimes 1000 people, to watch an african-american be alleged. >> absolutely. and sometimes the crowds were more than 1000 people. whiteo, texas, 15,000 men, women, children cannot to watch the lynching of jesse washington. that has happened many times across the country for over a century from about 1870 to 1964. experts believe there were probably -- they have recorded about nearly 5000 lynchings. most of thohose victims were africacan-americicans. theyey believe the numbers are probably close to 15,000. those are just the numbers they could document. the thing that really drove me

about understanding this history is the impact. if you can imagine in communities where half the people in your community came out to watch a lynching by the thousands, and what that feels like to hear thousands of people in your community cheering on the violence, the screaming come the laughing come even if you weren't in the midst of it, even if he did not agree with it, you still were impacted by it. what hasion for me is been passed along from generation to generation of families, both black families and white families. amy: claudia lacy, as you watchh thisis film, you know the storyf your beloved son lennon. but to s see it put into this context, what was your reaction? >> it is hard to explain. .t is heart wrenching becauses me to grieve his story the way i

wanted it to be told. it shows people what i had to endure, not because of what where i was in the circumstances up, how people tend to overlook right and wrong and choose who is right and who is wrong, who should and should not make choices to take matters into their own hands and do things that are inhumane. being in a comommunity that clce and that small every to say "i don't know, we did n not see anything" and to see her put it into words and into action and to connect it with history is terrifying. amy: so where does your search for the truth go now? there are these deeply moving parts of the documentary that -- where reverend barber comes to demand accounting and amplify your voice around the country. >> that is what i want it to do.

start the conversation so we can stop the hate and killing. start the conversation so no one can think they are above the law. start the conversation so when you have a job to do, dodo it regagardless of color, creed, yr circumstances. whatever happened, happened, but it needs to be done in a professional manner at all times regardless of your social status. people need to be respected as human beings -- sisterers and brothers, , thers and d fathers. if it was your child, wouldn't you want to know e everything uman in lifeal, was done to find a what happened? it is been more than four years. to anyone come forward in this case? >> lots of people did, but they were intimidated lost up it is a repeat of history. ran away, threaten, scared, locked up. some of them were killed. my s son and i heard of actual

killings, but it was like an accident. you did not hear anything about it. by the time we got to ththe scee where the e car hit his person,t was all cleared up and you cannot see anything but the bloodstain on the sidewalk. amy:, lived across -- >> amen lived in the trailer directly across shortly after lennon's death, within 20 for hours the man was killed in a hit and run. one of the many parallels to whwhat is going on historicallly that claudia and here and many people have had to deal with is that the trauma, the real tragedy off a possisible lynchig is compounded by the denial and the cover-up. not only do you have to deal with the death, but then you could do with people telling you that you don't knonow what you'e talking ababout, that it is not possiblele that your son might have beeeen murdered.

it is a compounding tragedy that nobody should have to deal with. amy: claudia lacy, your final message to the world as you continue to search for what happened to your son? >> be kinder to each other. watch the movie as though it was your family. understand what we are trying to show you. it is time to stop and start healing. amy: that is claudia lacy, the mother of lennon lacy, and jacqueline olive, the director of "always in season." claudia son lennon lacy was found hanging from a wooden swing set in a large white trailer park in north carolina. bladen county, north carolina, recently made national headlines after republican operative was accused of tampering with ababsentee ballots in the still unsettled d midterm congressionl race betweenen republicacan mark haharris and democrat dan macready. and that does it for our broadcast.

to see our full week of coverage from the sundance film festival here in park city, utah, go to democracynow.org. at 1:00 p.m.aking today at the park city museum at 528 main street, sponsored by dell licks bookstore sponsored by dolly's bookstore. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

sami yaffa: for thsasands of yeaars it was a a placsepaparatd from the b beliefs and influen of the outside world. after the second world war, western influence hit it like a tsunami. but walking here today, you can still sense the shroud of the past over everything, especially culture and customs. where else can you get an overdose of both history and blade runner-like futurism? or both spiritualism and over-the-top co