A Killing in Choctaw (2004)

Choctaw, Alabama, 1962 - an eighteen year old Carl Ray is severely beaten by a white man for disrespecting him; an hour later the white man shows up at the Carl's home and murders his father in cold blood. A Killing in Choctaw is a documentary on the life of Carl Ray and how the incident of 1962 defined his life and held him prisoner in his own skin for several decades. Through effective narration, reenactment, archival footage, and interviews with actual witnesses of the murder and trial participants, the documentary takes us back to the 1960's and sets the social context that bred such a horrific crime. We then follow the subsequent trauma, depression, and denial that young Ray suffered and endured for several decades until he learned to forgive his father's killer. A Killing In Choctaw is a haunting awakening to the effects of America's age-long racial injustice, it is a documentary that celebrates the triumph of light over darkness