Production and Release
Directors Daniel Anker and Barak Goodman said they were inspired to make the documentary by James Goodman's 1994 publication "Stories of Scottsboro," and understood that their film "would be reopening old wounds." Before the filmmaking, they researched for five years looking for materials concerning the courtroom pursuit. Anker and Goodman found the eyewitnesses of the event, as well as a record of courtroom photographs, trial transcripts, and archival newsreel footage kept in the Soviet Union. The research was funded by television network Public Broadcasting Service's series American Experience. The title of the film is speculated by the media to have been inspired by the 1969 historian book "Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South." by Dan T. Carter.
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy was narrated by Andre Braugher. It used trial transcripts and editorials which are voiced by Frances McDormand, Stanley Tucci, Harris Yulin, Jeffrey DeMunn and Daver Morrison. The film was co-produced by American Experience and Social Media Productions and distributed by Cowboy Pictures.
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy was released theatrically on January 19, 2001. It appeared at the New York International Documentary Festival, the Urbanworld Film Festival and took part in the documentary competition at Sundance Film Festival in January 2000.
Read more about this topic: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
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