Tower (2016 film)

Tower

Theatrical release poster

Tower is a 2016 semi-documentary film about the 1966 shootings at the University of Texas at Austin. Directed by Keith Maitland, it is the first documentary about the shootings to use cartoons.[1] The film is 82 minutes long, reduced from 92 minutes after the SXSW screening[2] and premiered at the 2016 South by Southwest.[3]

Summary

On August 1, 1966, a student rode the elevator to the top floor of the University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes. When the gunshots were finally silenced, the toll included 16 dead, three dozen wounded, and a shaken nation left trying to understand what had happened. Archival footage is combined with rotoscopic animation in a dynamic, never-before-seen way to illustrate the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors.

Production

The film is based on a 2006 Texas Monthly article by Pamela Colloff, "96 Minutes."[3] Maitland originated from New Jersey and attended UT Austin.[4] Maitland read the article in 2006 and asked Colloff to have lunch with him. He suggested making a film about the incident during the meeting.[5] Colloff became one of the executive producers of the film.[3] Various University of Texas students worked on the film as interns.[5]

To finance the film the creators opened an Indiegogo, generating almost $70,000 from over 330 people in six weeks.[5] In the final few days alumni of UT offered up a matching grant [6]

Early on Maitland realized that he and his team likely would not be able to film reenactments on the University campus and so they decided to opt for an animated aesthetic " to show the geography of the campus" [7] Footage was mostly shot in Maitland's backyard and then animated by production company Minnow Mountain who was aided by pictures Maitland had shot around campus. [8] Over 100 people were interviewed including at-the-time media members, police, students, and faculty, who had witnessed the events, but a few selective interviews were used.[5]

Reception

Justin Chang of Variety wrote that the film is "a uniquely cinematic memorial that will be in demand from programmers and buyers as the 50th anniversary of the shootings approaches."[2]

References

  1. ↑ Whittaker, Richard. "Kickstart Your Weekend: 'Tower'." Austin Chronicle. April 10, 2014. Retrieved on March 31, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Chang, Justin. "SXSW Film Review: ‘Tower’." Variety. March 15, 2016. Retrieved on March 31, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Colloff, Pamela. "The Reckoning." Texas Monthly. March 2016.
  4. ↑ Ricke, Claire. "Documentary depicts UT Tower shooting marking historic moment in Austin." KXAN. March 14, 2016. Retrieved on March 31, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Sliva, Vanessa. "'Tower' shows 1966 shooting from ground." The Daily Texan. May 1, 2014. Retrieved on March 1, 2016.
  6. ↑ http://kxan.com/2014/04/21/tower-documentary-gets-boost-from-ut-alumni/ Tower documentary gets boost from UT alumni]." KXAN. April 21, 2014. Retrieved on April 1, 2016.
  7. ↑ Laffly, Thomas. "Director Keith Maitland on Exploring The Country's First Mass School Shooting in Tower". Film School Rejects. Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  8. ↑ Newman, Jason. "How Animated Doc 'Tower' Explores Nation's First Mass School Shooting". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 12 November 2016.

External links

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