Gillian Laub
Sha’von Patterson holds a childhood photo of himself with his brother, Justin.
In 2002, photographer and UW-Madison alum Gillian Laub was sent by Spin magazine to Mount Vernon, Georgia, to chronicle one of America’s last racially segregated proms. At the time, she didn’t realize she’d be dedicating a decade to the project.
Repeat visits, threats of personal violence, and a striking New York Times Magazine photo spread eventually led to Mt. Vernon desegregating prom, a history Laub chronicles in the visual art exhibit, Southern Rites, on display through May 12 at the Chazen Museum of Art on the UW-Madison campus.
Tragedy struck Mount Vernon in 2011 when 22-year-old Justin Patterson, a young black man, was shot to death by Norman Neesmith, a 62-year-old white man. Patterson had been visiting Neesmith’s biracial niece and her friend at 3 a.m. with his brother, Sha’von, when Neesmith confronted them with a handgun he kept on his nightstand. The young men fled, Neesmith fired, and Justin died.
Laub already had been filming in Mount Vernon when Patterson was murdered. The Times editor introduced Laub to Lisa Heller, a fellow UW alum and producer at HBO, who gave the first-time filmmaker advice and guidance. After two years of gathering footage, Laub connected again with Heller, who agreed to release Laub’s film as an HBO documentary.
“This was a labor of love for me, and I felt like I had just given birth,” Laub says. “I was over the moon when HBO came on board and acquired Southern Rites.”
The documentary, which Laub produced, directed and on which she served as one of the primary cinematographers, screens April 16 at 6 p.m. at Union South’s Marquee Theater. Both Laub and Heller will participate in a post-showing Q&A.
The documentary operates like a second act to Laub’s Chazen exhibit, concentrating mostly on the Patterson shooting and its aftermath. The story of Calvin Burns, Mount Vernon’s chief of police who campaigned to become Montgomery County’s first black sheriff, is a secondary story thread that runs through the 77-minute film.
UW-Madison alum Gillian Laub spent years documenting racial relations in Georgia, leading to a major photography exhibit and HBO documentary.
“I had no prior filmmaking experience and it was a pretty steep learning curve,” says Laub, who has continued making short films and is working on a second feature. “But I felt the story’s true nuance would be best captured on film.”
The documentary provides greater context by presenting the sights and sounds of rural Georgia, many beautifully shot, and intimate interviews with the principals in the story, including Burns, Neesmith and Patterson family members. Local officials offer the social and legal framework under which what all acknowledged was a “terrible tragedy” occurred.
The documentary also shows that the region’s “southern rites” go beyond segregated proms.
Laub’s camera spends significant time with Neesmith, who is forthcoming about all aspects of his life, from raising a biracial niece in a still-segregated South to the ultimate murder of her one-time boyfriend. “A big part of me died that night, too,” he says during his sentencing. The message, seemingly heartfelt, offers little solace to sobbing Patterson family members.
Neesmith’s original charges, which could have led to life imprisonment plus 60 years, were plea-bargained down to involuntary manslaughter-felony grade and misdemeanor for reckless conduct. Neesmith served one year in a probationary detention facility and faces nine years of extended supervision.
Calvin Burns, a 30-year law enforcement veteran, was the frontrunner in the race for sheriff, but he lost by just 100 votes to a white man who had no law enforcement experience. Burns was denied a recount.
“I had people tell me in my face ‘Ain’t no nigger gonna be sheriff of Montgomery County,’” Burns says in the film’s closing minutes. “This is south Georgia. People ain’t ready for that.”
