This important film had its world premiere yesterday at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. The film documents an important episode from the late 1990s and early 2000s in the complicated racial history of Texas. The episode made the news a few years ago and quickly faded from our collective memory. The filmmakers present a balanced, if critical, view of the events in a small town in the Texas panhandle and what happened when a rouge undercover cop arrested 46 people - 39 of whom were African-Americans. The 46 people were charged with selling drugs based solely on the evidence of the single undercover cop. While filmmakers clearly side with the victims, they let the sheriff and the undercover cop speak and they weave together the different voices in the town to present the narrative of the events fairly and honestly. The connections between the fear of drugs and racial prejudices are self-evident.
This is powerful portrait of what rural America today. The picture that plays out shows the subtlety of racial prejudice and the failures - and eventual successes - of our judicial system. They also trace the problem to the incentives created by the drug task force system set up to fight the "War on Drugs" in the 1980s. The story of what happened in Tulia, Texas undoubtedly happens to one degree or another in communities across this country. If Tulia was a unique event, it would be a tragedy, but it is not unique and that makes it a symbol of the unresolved racial issues that Texas and America are still struggling to overcome.
This film deserves a wider audience and should be used in classrooms across this country to explain to young people the pernicious affects of modern day racism.
This is powerful portrait of what rural America today. The picture that plays out shows the subtlety of racial prejudice and the failures - and eventual successes - of our judicial system. They also trace the problem to the incentives created by the drug task force system set up to fight the "War on Drugs" in the 1980s. The story of what happened in Tulia, Texas undoubtedly happens to one degree or another in communities across this country. If Tulia was a unique event, it would be a tragedy, but it is not unique and that makes it a symbol of the unresolved racial issues that Texas and America are still struggling to overcome.
This film deserves a wider audience and should be used in classrooms across this country to explain to young people the pernicious affects of modern day racism.
