Cinematical

Emmett Till, a young black man who was murdered in 1955 because he whistled at a white woman (though those accused of the killing were acquitted of the crime by an all-white jury, they proudly confessed a few years later) is already the subject of a riveting documentary, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till. That film, which spent about six months in very limited release last year, was the result of nine years of research by director Keith Beauchamp and was fundamental in getting the Till case reopened. Now, Beauchamp plans to revisit the story, but in a fiction film. Produced by Frederick Zollo (who has a history with the subject matter, having also produced Ghosts of Mississippi and Mississippi Burning) and Thomas Levine, the project is expected to "focus on Till's life and slaying as well as the crime's immediate aftermath."

Given the team behind the movie, it certainly has a good chance to be successful. The story is powerful and awful, and is one that we shouldn't ignore - that said, however, didn't the documentary already tell it, and and tell it well? Do we really need another, fictional telling?