WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.500 align:middle line:90% 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:18.590 align:middle line:84% So when I started The Stuff of Hollywood-- 00:00:18.590 --> 00:00:24.440 align:middle line:84% early in this process, when its focus was on gun violence, 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:31.490 align:middle line:84% I had gone to read the continuity script of a movie 00:00:31.490 --> 00:00:36.140 align:middle line:84% that I hate, which is D.W. Griffith's 00:00:36.140 --> 00:00:40.010 align:middle line:90% 1915 The Birth of a Nation. 00:00:40.010 --> 00:00:44.930 align:middle line:84% And for you younger folks in the audience, 00:00:44.930 --> 00:00:49.400 align:middle line:84% it was the first feature film that 00:00:49.400 --> 00:00:54.410 align:middle line:90% was shown in the White House. 00:00:54.410 --> 00:00:59.960 align:middle line:84% And as far as I know, it still remains 00:00:59.960 --> 00:01:02.580 align:middle line:84% one of the highest grossing films ever, 00:01:02.580 --> 00:01:06.290 align:middle line:90% even though it was back in 1915. 00:01:06.290 --> 00:01:10.340 align:middle line:84% So when I was doing the research on gun violence, 00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:12.170 align:middle line:90% I read the continuity script. 00:01:12.170 --> 00:01:17.110 align:middle line:84% I wasn't able to really find anything that was useful for me. 00:01:17.110 --> 00:01:23.950 align:middle line:84% Fast forward to 2021, and I'm in St. Louis 00:01:23.950 --> 00:01:27.560 align:middle line:84% on a three-year appointment as a writer in residence, 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:31.000 align:middle line:84% and I'm teaching modern and contemporary documentary 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:32.620 align:middle line:90% poetics. 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:38.860 align:middle line:84% And as part of that class, I had my students 00:01:38.860 --> 00:01:42.680 align:middle line:84% take a trip to Olin Library Special Collections. 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:46.330 align:middle line:84% I had worked with a librarian there so 00:01:46.330 --> 00:01:50.330 align:middle line:84% that she could pull out things from their archives, 00:01:50.330 --> 00:01:52.270 align:middle line:84% from their collections that spoke 00:01:52.270 --> 00:01:56.770 align:middle line:84% to the college's history of some kind of activism 00:01:56.770 --> 00:01:59.156 align:middle line:90% or political activity. 00:01:59.156 --> 00:02:01.720 align:middle line:90% 00:02:01.720 --> 00:02:05.920 align:middle line:84% Unbeknownst to me, it was not at all anything 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:09.350 align:middle line:84% that she actually pulled out for the students. 00:02:09.350 --> 00:02:13.580 align:middle line:84% There was a box called Black film 00:02:13.580 --> 00:02:17.520 align:middle line:84% promotional material, the collection. 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:20.110 align:middle line:84% And she just happened to tell me, 00:02:20.110 --> 00:02:22.290 align:middle line:84% as the students were walking around looking 00:02:22.290 --> 00:02:25.120 align:middle line:84% at different things that she had set out, 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:30.360 align:middle line:84% she said, oh, we have this Aunt Jemima thing 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:31.840 align:middle line:90% or something in here. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:35.010 align:middle line:84% I don't know why she thought I'd be interested in it, but anyway. 00:02:35.010 --> 00:02:43.770 align:middle line:84% So I go in this box, and in it is this pamphlet. 00:02:43.770 --> 00:02:50.040 align:middle line:84% And so when you go to a concert or you go to the theater, 00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:52.410 align:middle line:90% they give you a pamphlet, right? 00:02:52.410 --> 00:02:58.110 align:middle line:84% So this was a pamphlet, an original one 00:02:58.110 --> 00:03:05.160 align:middle line:84% from the original screening of The Birth of a Nation. 00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:08.820 align:middle line:84% And I have no words to describe how 00:03:08.820 --> 00:03:12.100 align:middle line:84% I felt having that piece of history in front of me. 00:03:12.100 --> 00:03:15.810 align:middle line:90% I felt a number of things. 00:03:15.810 --> 00:03:25.460 align:middle line:84% Keep in mind that the fall of 2021, this was after January 6. 00:03:25.460 --> 00:03:35.270 align:middle line:84% And so my position in the world as an American citizen 00:03:35.270 --> 00:03:38.330 align:middle line:90% had changed quite a bit. 00:03:38.330 --> 00:03:44.790 align:middle line:84% So I went back and reread the continuity script, 00:03:44.790 --> 00:03:48.500 align:middle line:84% and it had a different weight than it did the first time 00:03:48.500 --> 00:03:51.020 align:middle line:90% that I read it. 00:03:51.020 --> 00:04:01.520 align:middle line:84% And so I have a 30 plus page minimalistic section that 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:06.200 align:middle line:84% is all documentary poetics, which means none of that section 00:04:06.200 --> 00:04:07.620 align:middle line:90% is of my voice. 00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:14.420 align:middle line:84% And the two sources for that section, 00:04:14.420 --> 00:04:18.290 align:middle line:84% there's language that I extracted from the continuity 00:04:18.290 --> 00:04:21.149 align:middle line:84% script, from The Birth of a Nation, 00:04:21.149 --> 00:04:24.350 align:middle line:84% and I went through all of the transcripts 00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:27.390 align:middle line:84% of the Congressional hearings from January 6, 00:04:27.390 --> 00:04:30.030 align:middle line:90% and I removed language for that. 00:04:30.030 --> 00:04:34.770 align:middle line:84% And so for most of this section-- 00:04:34.770 --> 00:04:37.500 align:middle line:90% you can't see it this far away-- 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:41.040 align:middle line:84% the language that's italicized, that's on the left side 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:43.150 align:middle line:90% is from The Birth of a Nation. 00:04:43.150 --> 00:04:45.420 align:middle line:84% And the language on the right side 00:04:45.420 --> 00:04:47.770 align:middle line:84% is from the Congressional hearings. 00:04:47.770 --> 00:04:50.520 align:middle line:84% And they always-- that language always begins with, 00:04:50.520 --> 00:04:51.970 align:middle line:90% begin video tape. 00:04:51.970 --> 00:05:01.290 align:middle line:84% So me being OCD, as Copper Canyon was putting this book 00:05:01.290 --> 00:05:05.820 align:middle line:84% together because there were mistakes on everybody's part, 00:05:05.820 --> 00:05:06.880 align:middle line:90% but many on mine. 00:05:06.880 --> 00:05:10.420 align:middle line:84% I'm good at big picture, but I'm not so good with the details, 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:11.290 align:middle line:90% if I'm honest. 00:05:11.290 --> 00:05:17.340 align:middle line:84% So anyway, I wanted to make sure that the citation for The Birth 00:05:17.340 --> 00:05:21.250 align:middle line:84% of the Nation at Olin Library at Wash U, that it was correct. 00:05:21.250 --> 00:05:23.190 align:middle line:84% And so I'm working with the librarian 00:05:23.190 --> 00:05:25.240 align:middle line:84% to make sure that we have it the right way. 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:28.990 align:middle line:84% For whatever reasons, I didn't think it was probably right. 00:05:28.990 --> 00:05:32.310 align:middle line:84% And so I happened to go to the Smithsonian 00:05:32.310 --> 00:05:35.400 align:middle line:84% Museum of American History because I saw that they had 00:05:35.400 --> 00:05:38.960 align:middle line:90% a copy of the pamphlet as well. 00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:42.740 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to see how they were crediting 00:05:42.740 --> 00:05:44.880 align:middle line:90% this piece in their library. 00:05:44.880 --> 00:05:51.680 align:middle line:90% And this is when I found this. 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:59.430 align:middle line:84% So this is the real cover of the pamphlet with the Capitol, 00:05:59.430 --> 00:06:02.510 align:middle line:90% the US Capitol in smoke. 00:06:02.510 --> 00:06:07.070 align:middle line:84% And the librarian and special collections at Wash U 00:06:07.070 --> 00:06:12.110 align:middle line:84% had no idea, which was kind of a lesson on what you think 00:06:12.110 --> 00:06:17.240 align:middle line:84% you have and what you think that you have all of the truth, 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:18.840 align:middle line:90% but you might not. 00:06:18.840 --> 00:06:22.910 align:middle line:84% And so this was the original cover, 00:06:22.910 --> 00:06:27.950 align:middle line:84% and I thought is this like, is this for real? 00:06:27.950 --> 00:06:31.460 align:middle line:84% So they at Wash U, the librarian, 00:06:31.460 --> 00:06:39.530 align:middle line:84% they had to do the work of correcting their citation. 00:06:39.530 --> 00:06:42.740 align:middle line:84% And I thought that this was an interesting process, just 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:46.780 align:middle line:84% to learn what the real cover looks like.