Saturday Feb 18
6:30 PM - 9:00 PM
doors open at 6:30PM and movie starts at 7PM
if you buy tickets online just give your email address at the door
filmmakers will introduce this amazing film
after film there will be a talk-back with filmmakers!
In 1991, Cameron Todd Willingham’s three daughters died in a Corsicana, Texas house fire. Tried and convicted for their arson murders, Willingham was executed in February 2004 despite overwhelming expert criticism of the prosecution’s arson evidence. Today, Willingham's name has become a call for reform in the field of forensics and a rallying cry for the anti-death penalty movement; yet he remains an indisputable "monster" in the eyes of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who ignored the science that could have saved Willingham’s life. Equal parts murder mystery, forensic investigation and political drama, INCENDIARY documents the haunted legacy of a prosecution built on “folklore.”
THE FILMMAKERS:
INCENDIARY is Joe Bailey, Jr.’s
first feature-length film. After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, Joe began working as a cinematographer and sound recordist in Austin. Finishing up a postdoctoral fellowship at the law school in 2009, he enrolled in Steve Mims’ Production Two course. A conversation after class about clemency, criminal process, and forensic science went on for days, and became this film.
Steve Mims’s award-winning short films have screened widely in festivals and on television. The New York Times' Vincent Canby called his film AUNT HALLIE "A treasure...which belongs on everybody's list of the top ten funniest films ever made." Mims's 2010 SXSW Showcase HONORARIUM was hailed as "a stunner of a short" by Marc Savlov for the Austin Chronicle. His feature film THE PERFECT SPECIMEN premiered at SXSW and on SHOWTIME. He has made music videos for Webb Wilder, Stephen Bruton, Los Straitjackets, the Austin Lounge Lizards and Billy Joe Shaver that have aired on MORE MUSIC, TNN, CMT, GAC, CMT EUROPE, M2 and MTV. Television broadcasts include ITALIAN PUBLIC TELEVISION, CAMPUS NETWORK, USA NETWORK, ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT, THE LEARNING CHANNEL, and PBS. Mims enjoys teaching through the University of Texas and Austin Film Works.
PRESS:
"Nonfiction filmmaking at its most classic. Crime, punishment, morality and hardball politics make for an explosive narrative mix all their own."
- Ann Hornaday, THE WASHINGTON POST (Critic’s Pick)
"Alarming viewing for anyone who cares about the American justice system."
- Sheri Linden, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
"A wildly and broadly appealing documentary...a fundamental enigma...gorgeous, riveting. If there's an overriding theme to a film that puts science first, it is that science and advocacy are not friends."
- John Pierson for THE NEW YORK TIMES