Award-winning filmmaker Keith Beauchamp to speak on ‘Murder in Black and White: Unsolved Civil Rights Murders’ April 6

Tuesday, March 31, 2009, By News Staff

Award-winning filmmaker Keith Beauchamp to speak on ‘Murder in Black and White: Unsolved Civil Rights Murders’ April 6March 31, 2009Erica Blustesblust@syr.edu

The Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) will present the discussion “Murder in Black and White: Unsolved Civil Rights Murders” with award-winning filmmaker and producer Keith Beauchamp on Monday, April 6, at 7 p.m. in Shemin Auditorium in the Dorothea I. Shaffer Art Building. The discussion, which includes a documentary screening, is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU pay lots.

Beauchamp is the executive producer and director of “Murder in Black and White,” a four-part documentary series designed to examine and help solve Civil Rights murders from the 1940s and 1950s while aging, long-silent witnesses and perpetrators might still be alive. Beauchamp worked closely with the FBI, which recommended the cases, and the information uncovered during the filmmaking process was shared with the FBI’s cold case unit. The series premiered in October 2008 on TV One and was hosted by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Beauchamp is also the filmmaker behind the award-winning 2005 documentary “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,” an investigation into the 1955 abduction and brutal murder of Till, a 14-year-old African American male in Mississippi. Till, who was from Chicago, was visiting relatives and allegedly whistled at a white woman in public the day of his murder. The acquittal of the suspects by an all-male, all-white jury and the suspects’ subsequent confession and lack of punishment outraged many Americans and helped ignite the Civil Rights Movement.

Beauchamp studied criminal justice at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., before deciding to move to New York City to become a filmmaker and address issues of racial and social injustice. He is the founder of Till Freedom Come Productions, a company devoted to socially significant projects that can both teach and entertain. His numerous awards include the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, the ImageNation Revolution Award and the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review. He has been nominated for an Emmy Award and an NAACP Image Award.

For more information, contact Amos Kiewe, professor in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, at (315) 443-5132 or akiewe@syr.edu.

VPA is committed to the education of cultural leaders who will engage and inspire audiences through performance, visual art, design, scholarship and commentary. The college provides the tools for self-discovery and risk-taking in an environment that thrives on critical thought and action. Learn more at http://vpa.syr.edu.