Austin Bell's ('10) 18-minute documentary, aired for the first time last night in Duke Performance Hall, explored the tensions not only of the situation in Jena itself but in the feelings of the Davidson students who traveled the 16-hour bus ride to the protest.
The documentary, according to Bell, discusses "why [Jena 6] is relevant to Davidson and why we should keep talking about it."
Consisting of a history of the situation and numerous interviews of attendees as well as President Tom Ross, it mainly provided footage of Jena's crowded streets and emotional protesters for students unable to go to Louisiana last Thursday.
"I actually made a fake press pass," Bell said of his ability to videotape inside Jena High School and access the press area of the protest. He said he spoke with CNN's press representative, who had not gone to speak with anyone in the crowd and was only covering the event because "people had been emailing [CNN] about it."
Fox News covered the Jena 6 protests, Chris Burton '08, president of the Student Government Association (SGA), said, but the large news station "misrepresented it by saying there was only 1,000 people down there, which was just preposterous."
Ross's Opening Convocation speech, which addressed the presence of the Confederate flag on campus and spurred discussions about race at Davidson, was also mentioned several times throughout the documentary and the later panel discussion.
Burton spoke of rascism as an "ugly thing" that is always around us, even though we sometimes do not acknowledge it.
"We need to lean into discomfort," Jessica Givens '10 said. "Just say how you feel."
She added, "It's our jobs as students not to be apathetic."
"We don't allow ourselves to take time away from being a student to do things that are way, way more important," Nora Goldberger '08 said.
Bell's documentary ended with the charge not to confine learning at Davidson to the classroom.
To bring a revolution of ideas, Burton said, "It's going to take a purging of sorts."
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