The Last White Knight

Dir. Paul Saltzman (78min, Canada/USA, 2012).
Documentary 

“Without

ever shying from the brutality of racial hatred, Saltzman’s

first-person inquiry into the human face of intolerance… is bracing for

its conviction in the power of simple human contact." –The Globe and Mail

Paul

Saltzman’s courageous film was inspired by an incident during the early

1960s when he – a young, Jewish, civil rights activist – journeyed to

the Deep South to help with voter registration in Mississippi. One of

the first days he was there he was assaulted by a group of young men led

by Byron “Delay” De La Beckwith, the son of the man convicted of

killing civil rights activist Medgar Evers.  

Decades

later, Saltzman returns to the south to meet with Beckwith and see

what, if anything, has changed in the New South. He interviews a wide

variety of people from Harry Belafonte, the celebrated singer and civil rights activist, who recounts his own experiences during the voter registration drive; actor Morgan Freeman

(who was born, and now lives, in Mississippi); a top FBI official, who

discuss the close links between the police and the Klan during the

period; to a group of kids from different races who are best friends;

and (chillingly) a trio of dedicated, unregenerate Klansmen.