Film Details

Recy Taylor, who died in December at age 97 and whom Oprah Winfrey mentioned in her galvanizing Golden Globes speech of 1/7, was a married, 24-year-old, African-American Alabama sharecropper and mother who, on her way home from church one night in 1944, was abducted and raped by six white boys. Her attackers were never prosecuted, even though one of them confessed to the crime. This notorious case, one of the sparks of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, was originally investigated by a young activist from the Montgomery office of the NAACP named Rosa Parks. Nancy Buirski’s acclaimed new documentary uses interviews, photographs, and film clips to explore this explosive incident that reverberated for decades. It also pays tribute to a courageous woman who spoke up for herself and many others. “Planting a flag firmly at the intersection of patriarchy, sexism and white supremacy, The Rape of Recy Taylor is a documentary of multiple layers and marvelous gumption…The movie isn’t a diatribe. Its voices are gentle and persuasive…A heart-wrenching history of systemic injustice.” –The NY Times. Cleveland premiere. DCP. 91 min.