BMI Composers Play Starring Role in SXSW Film Festival
Pictured (L-R) at the SXSW world premiere of “TOWER” are: director Keith Maitland, BMI film composer Osei Essed and University of Texas mass shooting survivor Claire Wilson James. “TOWER” is the story of a sniper, who on August 1, 1966, rode the elevator to the top floor of the University of Texas Tower and opened fire, holding the campus hostage for 96 minutes. When the gunshots were finally silenced, the toll included 16 dead, three dozen wounded, and a shaken nation left trying to understand. Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation in a dynamic, never-before-seen way, “TOWER” reveals the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting, when the worst in one man brought out the best in so many others. Claire Wilson James (pictured), who was 8 months pregnant at the time of the shooting 50 years ago, was the first to be shot.
TAGSPhotos Film & TV Austin SXSW Essed, Osei
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