Tower

February 16, 2017 · Scruffy City Hall · 8:00 p.m.

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August 1st 1966 was the day our innocence was shattered. A sniper rode the elevator to the top floor of the iconic University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes in what was a previously unimaginable event.

Tower combines archival footage with rotoscopic animation of the dramatic day, based entirely on first-person testimonies from witnesses, heroes, and survivors, in a seamless and suspenseful retelling of the unfolding tragedy. The film highlights the fear, confusion, and visceral realities that changed the lives of those present, and the rest of us, forever—a day when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others.

“Maitland uses familiar and even overfamiliar devices—mainly animation and, in particular, rotoscoping—to compensate for a dearth of archival images. But he does so in boldly imaginative ways that prove to have a long philosophical tail, one that ultimately circles around to address the very subject of the nonexistent images that the animations replace, and to spotlight the role of the movie itself in revealing that historical lack of imagery and making up for it.” — The New Yorker

“It’s a gripping dramatic reconstruction, a tribute to the heroes and the fallen, and inevitably an expression of nostalgia for the days when a mass shooting still had the power to shock.” — Variety

About the Filmmaker

Keith Maitland is the Emmy-nominated director of The Eyes of Me, a year-in-the-life of four blind teens, which broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens and received a Barbara Jordan Media Award. Director of documentary features, commercials, and TV series, Maitland also worked for seven seasons with NBC’s Law & Order as an AD. Keith is currently developing narrative and documentary projects and leading filmmaking workshops for incarcerated teens. He is a graduate of The University of Texas.