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HBO: What brought you both to the subject, and
why did you want to make this film?
Craig Renaud: Brent and I were both raised in Little Rock,
Arkansas. I went to Central High School, and
if you grow up in Little Rock, Central High
School is very prominent in everybody's
minds. And when you go to that school, you
start to learn a lot about what happened at
Central High School in 1957 when Governor
Faubus called out the National Guard to
prevent nine black students from integrating
the high school. We have wanted to make a
film at Central High for years and were just
looking for the right opportunity. With the
fiftieth anniversary coming up, the school
knew that there would be a lot of press
requests to do a film or documentary. And I
think with us being from the community there
was a lot more trust in having us make the
film.
Brent Renaud: This fiftieth anniversary is going to be a huge
celebration commemorating a major historic
civil rights event in our country. In
recognition of that we thought it would be
interesting to make a film that looks back at
the events of 1957, but concentrates on the
kids in the school today. One thing people
are always saying about Central High is that it
gives clues to us as a nation, of how far we
have come in terms of race relations and civil
rights in the last 50 years, and at the same
time how far we still have to go. And that's
why we focused in on this school, because
Central High is a symbol today, just like it
was 50 years ago for what is happening in our
schools and our nation as a whole. People
who have seen this film tell us the issues at
Central High are the same as they are in their
communities, in Chicago, or New York, or in
the Midwest. We saw and opportunity once
again for this school to tell us an important
story.
HBO: What was your approach when you began?
Brent Renaud: We approached this film the way we approach
all of our films. We always seek to tell the
stories of the people involved and we try not
to interject ourselves into the film too much,
which that is why you don't see narration in
the film. It's why you don't even hear music
during the body of the film that could
influence the emotion. There are not
statistics that are susceptible to spin. In a lot
of ways we like to just hold the camera up
and allow our subjects to express themselves.
Because we feel that's how you really learn
about people and that's how you really
understand the issues behind the headlines,
is by understanding the people that are
involved in it.
Craig Renaud: One of the questions that's always asked
every ten years at the anniversaries of the
incidents that happened in 1957 is, How far
have we come and how far do we have to go? I
think that's a very basic concept, walking into
this film. We were looking at Little Rock
Central High fifty years later. What is the
school like today? And we ask that question
of everybody: the faculty at the school, the
Principal, the students - both black and white
from all different socio-economic levels and
backgrounds. And if you allow them to tell
their stories you get a good sense of what the
school is like today.
One of the repeated issues that we heard from
a lot of people in Little Rock is that they feel
Central High School is still segregated, and
that it is really two schools in one. One
school having mostly white students in
advanced placement classes that sends its
graduates to the best colleges in America, and
the other school with regular and remedial
classes with mostly African American
students, which many people claim suffers
the same ills as any inner city school in
America. And that despite 50 years since
school integration, the achievement gap
between white and black students doesn't
seem to be closing, and for young black males
it is actually getting worse. Naturally
opinions about this and other issues of
segregation at the school vary greatly. But
ultimately through the voices of the subjects
in the film, the viewer can come to their own
opinions about the merits of the criticism, and
how far they feel we have really come as a
nation in terms of integration.
HBO: What surprised you while making the film?
Brent Renaud: This film is really about Central High today.
But in telling the back-story of events of 1957
we looked through hours and hours of
archival footage. In 1957, when this event
happened, nine black students trying to
integrate the school - the Governor calls out
the Arkansas National Guard to stop them
from integrating the school. In reaction
President Eisenhower sends down the 101st
Airborne of the U.S. Army to escort the kids
into the school. It was a major event that
happened right at the beginning of television,
right at the beginning of television news. So it
was covered by reporters from all over the
world.
And to look back at that stuff and just see
what it was like for these nine teenagers to go
through every day - angry mobs screaming at
them, calling them names, soldiers with guns
and bayonets pushing them back, not
allowing them to go into the school, and the
courage those kids had every single day to
keep on going. In a lot of ways they changed
America and did what the adults were not
willing to do. Its really quite extroadinary.
And I think Central High is a symbol. Fifty
years ago it was a painful symbol. It told us
something about America at the time,
encapsulated in that one small school and in
those nine teenagers. And I think it continues
today. It tells us something about the
inequality in America and the continued
inequality in education that still exists in our
classrooms today.
Craig Renaud: I think for us it was really important to take
the time to show how complex of an issue this
is. People's perspective of the solutions for
this really differ dramatically, depending on
whom you talk to. But this school is an icon
for the entire world. Yet it's suffering a lot of
the same issues and problems that the rest of
the country faces. And so we really tried to
paint that complex picture from a lot of
different perspectives. What we do want the
film to do is to spark a discussion. It's fifty
years later and as everybody commemorates
the anniversary, everybody needs to continue
to ask the question: how far have we come,
and how far do we still need to go?
Brent Renaud: And I think this film can really tell us
something about ourselves by helping us
understand the stories of these students.
And that's what our goal was.
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