All across the United States, from Ferguson, Mo. to Washington D.C., voices are heard ringing to the skies. “Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter!” are the cries rising to end police brutality throughout our nation.
These cries are not only heard in big cities, however, with big police forces and large minority populations being brutalized. These issues are also present in local forces, as seen in the documentary “Peace Officer,” which is being screened this Thursday for students at the Post Theater. A trailer for the film can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/118632574.
Local Utah filmmakers Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson, film faculty at Brigham Young University, directed “Peace Officer.”
The pair provided an online summary of the film, which describes it as “a documentary about the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the story of ‘Dub’ Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained his rural state’s first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigation skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community, while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide.”
According to Kevin Hanson, the Chair of the Film and Media Arts department at the U, the faculty wants to show “Peace Officer” on campus in order to provoke students into thinking about local police issues.
“[The film is] about unnecessary police shootings, but in this film they don’t take place in Ferguson, LA or New York,” Hanson said. “Here they happen in a very close place with familiar and recognizable people. It kind of brings the issue home and gives an unnerving look at whether or not these incidents happen locally.”
Another large reason this film has come to campus is because Sterling van Wagenen, a local producing superstar who serves as the Producer in Residence for the Film department, produced it.
Van Wagenen, who spent three years working on “Peace Officer,” said this screening is “especially important for a university community, because it addresses community issues, issues that are in national conversation, concerning the boundaries and limits of police power. The film is not intended to be one-dimensional or over critical of police, seeing as the film is from their perspective. Rather, the film is meant to stimulate a conversation about the issues, more than anything else.”
Sterling also encourages students to attend the screening, because the film touches on so many dimensions of student interest, from film to social justice to legal issues.
Van Wagenen will be present at the screening to answer questions after the film screening, alongside directors Brad Barber and Scott Christopherson and the star of the film, retired officer Dub Lawrence.
Students interested can visit the Facebook page for the event at: https://www.facebook.com/events/475865389271517/