Susanna Styron Movies

As the title implies, this historical documentary by Susanna Styron (the daughter of William and Rose Styron) represents one of many artistic responses to the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Following those calamitous, nightmarish events, filmmaker Styron picked up her cameras and began to observe, through her lens, the astonishing lengths to which New Yorkers drew from inner resources to help one another and heal the trauma of the city. The resultant documentary, which combines direct cinema footage, archival photos and man-on-the street interviews, reveals men and women coordinating the delivery of first aid supplies, mounting relief stations, and supporting relief workers in every way imaginable, as they forged deep and meaningful bonds with one another. Styron uses this raw material to create a complex emotional tapestry with elements of warmth, poignancy, humor and inspirational uplift. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Susanna Styron made her feature directorial debut with this family drama, an adaptation of a 1978 short story by her father, novelist William Styron (Sophie's Choice). Paul Whitehurst (voice of Martin Sheen) recalls Depression-era events in Tidewater, Virginia, when he was ten years old. In the summer of 1935, lonely young Paul (Scott Terra), with his strict father (Darrell Larson) and fatally ill mother (Deborah Hedwall), is raised in a boring, middle-class way of life, so mundane it leads him into a friendship with the lower-class Dabneys, once aristocratic but now reduced to poverty on the former Dabney plantation. Bootlegger Vernon (Harvey Keitel) is married to earthy beer-drinking Trixie (Andie MacDowell), and Paul enjoys the fun-loving lifestyle of this couple and their seven children. Shadrach (John Franklin Sawyer), a 99-year-old former slave, turns up one day at the Dabney house after walking barefoot from Alabama to Virginia, where he was born into slavery. Since Shadrach's wish to be buried on the Dabney's land violates Virginia law, the request sets a variety of racist attitudes and conflicts into motion. Shown at the 1998 LA Independent Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi