Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Alumnus’ Documentary Exploring History of Lynching Screening Today

Tuesday, September 12, 2017, By News Staff
Share
College of Arts and Sciences

On Sept. 12, Syracuse University will screen “An Outrage,” a documentary film exploring the history and legacy of lynching and co-directed by Lance Warren ’04. The film will be shown at 5 p.m. in 220 Eggers.

Warren, a graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and his wife, Hannah Ayers, directed, edited and produced “An Outrage.” The film studies the scale and scope of lynching in the American South, and its many echoes today, through visits to lynching sites and encounters with descendants of victims and activists working to memorialize the killings.

Lance Warren and Hannah Ayers

Lance Warren and Hannah Ayers

Warren says he and his wife started the project after years of working closely with history teachers and witnessing their role in shaping how American history is remembered.

“The lessons learned—or missed—in those classrooms make a big difference in how we remember the past, and thus, how we vote, how we raise our children and how we influence our friends and family,” says Warren.

The film’s exclusive K-12 education rights were acquired by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The center is writing curriculum to support the film and will deploy the film and these new teaching tools to its “Teaching Tolerance” network of nearly 500,000 teachers—and their millions of students—starting this fall.

“For the many thousands who were killed, and for their families, lynching defined the limits of American citizenship,” Warren says. “Hannah and I believe that it is essential for Americans to learn about this history to honor those who died, to understand the fullness of our past and to better appreciate the roots of contemporary debates around ideas about race.”

The film documents the history of lynching from the end of the Civil War to the middle of the 20th century.

“An Outrage” premiered at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in March 2017 as part of the History Film Forum, a four-day event co-presented by the Smithsonian and the National Endowment for the Humanities to feature new directions in history cinema. In April, it received the audience award at the Indie Grits Film Festival in Columbia, South Carolina, marking it as the favorite among more than 80 films in competition. Just last month, “An Outrage” won Best Documentary Short at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival in Vermont. This fall and spring, the film will screen at 20 universities, museums and theaters across the country.

Warren says he is inspired to see how many people are willing to turn out and watch a film about such a difficult subject, and then to engage in open and honest discussions about the history and impact of these crimes.

“On its own, our film, like all social issue documentary films, can do little,” says Warren. “But by serving as a hub for action and engagement through safe and open dialogue, we have already seen that ‘An Outrage’ can stir communities to put its lessons to work.”

The filmmakers say that keeping the documentary short enough to fit into class sessions and homework assignments, while still reflecting the complexity of the topic, was a difficult job.

“Maintaining a balance between big ideas and individual perspectives, all while making the film on an extremely tight budget (we self-financed the film) and a short timeline—these were the biggest challenges,” says Warren.

Warren recalls how his education at Syracuse University helped him with his career and life’s work and shaped his perspectives.

“My work at SU was deeply rooted in the humanities,” he says. “In thinking critically and compassionately about the ideas that drive, elevate and hamper human society. As a result, I graduated with informed global perspectives and habits of thinking that now enable me to make films rooted in ideas that matter.”

AN OUTRAGE: Trailer from Field Studio on Vimeo.

 

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Newhouse Creative Advertising Students Win Big at Sports and Entertainment Clios
    Friday, May 30, 2025, By News Staff
  • Syracuse University Libraries’ Information Literacy Scholars Produce Information Literacy Collab Journal
    Thursday, May 29, 2025, By Cristina Hatem
  • Syracuse Spirit on Display: Limited-Edition Poster Supports Future Generations
    Thursday, May 29, 2025, By News Staff
  • Timur Hammond’s ‘Placing Islam’ Receives Journal’s Honorable Mention
    Tuesday, May 27, 2025, By News Staff
  • Syracuse University, Lockerbie Academy Reimagine Partnership, Strengthen Bond
    Friday, May 23, 2025, By News Staff

More In Arts & Culture

Syracuse Stage Hosts Inaugural Julie Lutz New Play Festival

Syracuse Stage is pleased to announce that the inaugural Julie Lutz New Play Festival will be held at the theatre this June. Formerly known as the Cold Read Festival of New Plays, the festival will feature a work-in-progress reading and…

Light Work Opens New Exhibitions

Light Work has two new exhibitions, “The Archive as Liberation” and “2025 Light Work Grants in Photography, that will run through Aug. 29. “The Archive as Liberation” The exhibition is on display in the Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery at Light…

Spelman College Glee Club to Perform at Return to Community: A Sunday Gospel Jazz Service June 29

As the grand finale of the 2025 Syracuse International Jazz Fest, the Spelman College Glee Club of Atlanta will perform at Hendricks Chapel on Sunday, June 29. The Spelman College Glee Club, now in its historic 100th year, is the…

Alumnus, Visiting Scholar Mosab Abu Toha G’23 Wins Pulitzer Prize for New Yorker Essays

Mosab Abu Toha G’23, a graduate of the M.F.A. program in creative writing in the College of Arts and Sciences and a current visiting scholar at Syracuse University, has been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for a series of essays…

School of Architecture Faculty Pablo Sequero Named Winner of 2025 Architectural League Prize

School of Architecture faculty member Pablo Sequero’s firm, salazarsequeromedina, has been named to the newest cohort of winners in the biennial Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, one of North America’s most prestigious awards for young practitioners. “An…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.