SOUTHERN RITES
dir - Gillian Laub
prod - Gillian Laub, Josh Alexander, Troy Carter, John Legend, Mike Jackson, Ty Stiklorius
edit - Joel Plotch, Nancy Novack
writ - Josh Alexander
> Theatrical, HBO
> Hot Docs
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This feature documentary visits modern day Montgomery County, Georgia, one year after the town merged its racially divided high-school proms, and during an historic election campaign that many hoped would lead to its first African-American sheriff. Photographer Gillian Laub, whose photographs of earlier segregated proms brought the area unwanted notoriety after being published in the New York Times Magazine in 2009, returns to the town of Mount Vernon, GA to document the repercussions when a white resident is charged with the murder of a young black man. The case divides locals along well-worn racial lines, and the ensuing trial uncovers complex truths that produce emotional revelations.
