Southern Rites

This film is a powerful portrayal of how perceptions and politics have divided two towns in southeast Georgia along racial lines for years. In 2009, The New York Times Magazine published filmmaker and acclaimed photographer Gillian Laub’s controversial images of Montgomery County High School’s racially segregated proms. A media furor ensued and under extreme pressure, the Georgian town was forced to finally integrate the proms in 2010. Laub returned camera in hand to document the changes, only to stumble upon a series of events far more indicative of race relations in the Deep South: old wounds are reopened following the murder of an unarmed young black man by an elderly white town patriarch. Against the backdrop of an historic campaign to elect its first African-American sheriff, the case divides locals along well-worn racial lines and threatens to drag the town back to darker days. The film documents the town's painful struggle to progress while confronting longstanding issues of race, equality and justice, and ultimately asks whether a new generation can make a different future for itself from a difficult past.

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Movies That Matter is a bi-monthly film series program of the City of Fort Worth’s Human Relations Commission.

The series was created in 2010 as a way to create awareness in the community about human rights issues affecting people in Fort Worth and worldwide. The Movies That Matter Film Series will present a human rights-related film screening and moderated discussion in February, April, June, August, October and December.