Rating: *****
In 1965, Frank De Felitta, a documentary
filmmaker for NBC News, went to Greenwood Mississippi to take a look at the
state, then embroiled in the burgeoning Civil rights movement, to try and make
sense of this part of the United States that was the subject of so much
conversation.
In his travels, Frank met a black man named
Booker Wright. Booker was a waiter at a local, whites only, Greenwood
restaurant called Lusco’s, and in the midst of reciting the restaurant’s menu
by heart, which the restaurant was known for, Booker made some what were really
rather benign observations about how whites treated black people in Mississippi
at the time. But givern that time and that place, his comments were really
quiet incendiary. Over 40 years later, Frank’s son Raymond decides to seek out
Booker, and learn his fate after he appeared in his father’s documentary. But
fate wasn’t kind to Booker, and as the De Felittas learned, Booker was killed
not too long after the documentary aired in ’65.
But this isn’t a conspiracy thriller. The
death of Booker isn’t the point of the film, but rather a galvanizing force to
understand this man and his world. Raymond connects with Booker’s granddaughter
Yvette, and for her this is a journey of discovery too. She had always thought
that her grandfather was an “accidental activist,” as she says, that Frank De
Felitta had caught Booker’s comments on the fly. Yvette had never seen the film
until it was put online by Raymond, but as they both learn, Booker not only
knew what he was doing, but he knew there would be implications. “You realize
if this airs, they will kill you,” Frank remembers telling Booker at the time. And
yes, he did realize it.
As race continues to be a great dividing
line in the United
States, I really
couldn’t think of a better time for this movie. I might still consider Brooker
Wright an “accidental activist” in that he didn’t seek out a stage, but he
seized an opportunity when it came knocking. It’s a recurring theme in the
history of activism that people rise to the occasion, and usually act out of
the blue. The story of Booker Wright is the story of a man that saw an
opportunity to speak a simple truth, which are quite often the most dangerous,
and he took it.
Remembrances of Booker are recorded, and
paradoxically, the old Booker’s Place, the restaurant/pub that Booker ran when
he wasn’t working at Lusco’s, still stands vacant in Greenwood. It’s as
if the building and the town were waiting for the day a camera crew would
return to learn the fate of them and Booker. Raymond De Felitta really does
bring history to life, and blends his father’s original footage with his own by
shooting in black and white. The picture is beautiful and crisp, and all the
more visceral and textual. The film is incredibly affecting, full of memory and
sadness, but also a lot of hope.
Booker’s Place also raises a lot of interesting questions about the nature of
documentary film, and whether you can capture a story without affecting it. But
really, this is a human story of inspiration and tragedy. A silent (and not so
silent) tribute to the people that change the world is small ways whether they
realize it, like Booker. Or almost never realize it, like Frank De Felitta.
