The Long Shadow presents a history of slavery and racism in America in the form of a personal journey of discovery by director Frances Causey, who also serves as narrator. As a white child growing up in the South, Causey was proud of her ancestor Edmund Pendleton, a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1774 and a supporter of independence. Causey later learned that Pendleton had also proposed the modification excluding slaves from the provisions of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776, and by the time she reached college, she concluded that she was benefitting from a system of white privilege that functioned as a sort of American apartheid. After a stint at CNN, Causey became a filmmaker, focusing on the continuing struggle for African American equality in the United States. Animated by the injustices revealed in the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, Causey here sketches out what she describes as systemic racism in America, which began with the introduction of slavery in the colonial period, was codified in our founding documents (and later legislation and court decisions), and—despite the Civil Rights movement—persists to the present day, growing increasingly blatant in recent years. Combining an excellent selection of archival materials with new interviews, Causey presents an eloquent argument regarding a persistent flaw in America’s democratic dream. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
The Long Shadow
(2018) 84 min. DVD: $59.95 ($299 w/PPR from edu.passionriver.com). Passion River (avail. from most distributors). Volume 33, Issue 5
The Long Shadow
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