Down in Dallas Town (From JFK to K2) / Film School Radio interview with Director Alan Govenar

Alan Govenar’s beautifully rendered meditation, Down in Dallas Town (From JFK to KS)2 takes us to the shifting perceptions of public memory sixty years after the murder of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Through interviews with people on the street and songs recorded to memorialize JFK in the mid-1960s, the film explores the impact of the assassination on issues in today's world, from lingering conspiracy theories to the proliferation of gun violence, homelessness, and the scourge of K2. Personal narratives are juxtaposed with the sentiments articulated in blues, gospel, norteño, and calypso recordings to haunting affect. Especially poignant is the account of Mary Ann Moorman, who returns to the assassination site fifty years later and details the making of her Polaroid photograph of the fatal head shot that killed JFK as the motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza. This resonant new film by Alan Govenar confronts ways we come to terms with the past through the power of storytelling, image-making, and a songbook that is largely unknown. Award winning filmmaker Alan Govenar (The Beat Hotel, Tattoo Uprising) joins us to talk about how the Kennedy legend continues to hold sway over people born long after his traumatizing public execution, the power of song in framing the Kennedy legacy, getting Mary Ann Moorman to participate in the making of this film and the impact of poverty and homelessness on the social fabric of a fraying society wracked by violence.