Counter Histories: Rock Hill (rating: PG-13 running time 53 minutes) is the must-see multi-winning documentary that should be shown in every educational institution in America is coming to VOD & digital on May 18. See for yourself why everyone is talking about it and how it dramatically fits in with today’s racial injustice, violence, police brutality, protests, demonstrations, and criminal activity. The past will come back to haunt you when the 1960s civil rights movement portrayed in this film returns— history repeats itself again in 2020-21.
A group of five African-American men known as the ‘Friendship 9’ stage a sit-in in a Rock Hill, South Carolina coffee shop. They introduce and test the ‘jail no bail’ strategy that invigorates the movement and is the pre-cursor to the Freedom Rides.
Interviews and documents with the original 5 participants in the sit-in were gathered by the director/producer team of Frederick Taylor and Ellen Barnard knew that the great story they stumbled upon had to be told to a wider audience.
The film aired on PBS’s nationally distributed series, ‘Reel South’ and on Magic Johnson’s Aspire Network’s ABFF Series. The longer format, 30- minute, and 60-minute versions have played in over 25 film festivals and received many accolades and awards.
The production company, Tomorrow Pictures began this production with a grant from the University of Mississippi’s Southern Foodways Alliance and presented an 8-minute short film as part of Kate Medley’s Counter Histories 5- part series honoring the history of the Civil Rights Act.
Check out this YouTube Trailer here:
See the film for yourself on VOD & digital May 18.