REVIEW: Travis Wilkerson wonders ‘Who Fired the Gun’
Photo: Travis Wilkerson produces, narrates, writes and directs Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? Photo courtesy of Grasshopper Film / Provided by Film Forum press site with permission.
The startling and engrossing documentary Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, now playing New York City’s Film Forum, finds producer, narrator, writer and director Travis Wilkerson investigating the legacy of his great-grandfather and the history of racism in the American South. As Wilkerson digs deep — always with a touch of artistry and indie aplomb — the answers he finds are difficult and unfortunate. The filmmaker’s working thesis is that his great-grandfather killed a black man in 1946 and walked away without facing justice.
Wilkerson’s journey is personal because it deals with his own family’s history, but the themes he touches upon are universal and still continue to impact society in 2018. The issue of racism in the United States still grabs the headlines, and unfortunately hatred, discrimination and equality rear their ugly heads in the modern day. What Wilkerson’s documentary offers is a nightmarish vision of how his story connects to the overall narrative of race, racism, civil rights and violence.
With his camera and questions at the ready, Wilkerson heads to the site of the murder of Bill Spann. He talks with his own family members and those from the neighborhood, trying to find out what happened. These testimonials are never presented in a typical fashion. Rather than combining a host of talking heads, all offering their monologues while staring off into the distance, Wilkerson stays with his subjects for a while, letting them talk uninterrupted and sometimes reading their words himself. While their audio plays, he has some unusually transfixing and moving camerawork to serve as a complement.
One motif that he returns to includes the highways of his journeys. He mounts the camera on the car as he travels down the lanes, and the dim colors loom overhead in the ominous sky. Red, in particular, dominates the screen, offering the viewers the chance to contemplate the voiceovers and the landscapes, and how they might connect and add meaning to each other.
Did You Wonder will surely not be everyone’s idea of a night at the movies. It’s a difficult work about a difficult subject, but it proves to be an important investigation of how secrets live on for generations and how tragedies can reshape the destiny of a family. Most of all, the documentary serves as a mirror to American society, providing an uncomfortable lens in which to look at the racism and violence that have pervaded the country for far too long.
Wilkerson’s slow, methodical narration will stay with the viewers for a long, long time — mostly because the words are so powerful and so terrifying to consider.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? (2017) is now playing New York City’s Film Forum. Produced, written and directed by Travis Wilkerson. Running time: 90 minutes. Rating: 
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