SummaryIn 1946, my great-grandfather murdered a black man named Bill Spann and got away with it." So begins Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, filmmaker Travis Wilkerson critically acclaimed investigation into the murder, family history, and the societal mores that allowed it to happen. Wilkerson tells a frightening and troubling story, incorporating sc... Read More
Directed By:Travis Wilkerson
Written By:Travis Wilkerson
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?
Metascore
Generally Favorable
78
User score
Mixed or Average
5.7
My Score
Drag or tap to give a rating
Hover and click to give a rating
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Metascore
Generally Favorable
78
82% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
18% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Feb 27, 2018
100
The movie, a scorching and rigorous essay on memory and accountability, is neither a profession of guilt nor a performance of virtue. Though his inquiry is intensely, at times painfully personal, Mr. Wilkerson is above all concerned with unpacking the mechanisms of racial domination.
90
It’s hard not to experience Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? and not get shivers up your spine — from fear, from anger, and from the beauty of Wilkerson’s filmmaking.
Apr 18, 2018
89
Sometimes the screen goes completely black as the film focuses solely on the audio component (Wilkerson’s voice). It has the sense of a confession, and made me wonder if this project is somehow an act of penance.
Feb 27, 2018
83
When the repressed past gains sudden and violent visibility in the present, the genre that’s evoked is horror, and one of the film’s greatest strengths is the way it leans into this association.
70
Recounting his attempt to learn more about his great-grandfather's killing of a black man in 1946, Wilkerson is a compelling enough guide that it may be some time before the audience starts to wonder if the central mystery is a red herring.
Mar 1, 2018
67
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? is at its sharpest and most necessary when Wilkerson interrogates his personal connection to the past, extrapolating his reticence to explore his own family’s violent history into a national epidemic of people who are similarly reluctant to do the same.
40
Wilkerson doesn’t mean to suggest ambiguity with his title, since no one questions the identity of the culprit, but it is regrettably indicative of his naval-gazing focus on family skeletons, combined with a deeply annoying tendency to sensationalize the obvious.
User score
Mixed or Average
5.7
43% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
43% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
14% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Jul 9, 2020
7
It wasn't just about a murder... Two Families, both live in Alabama, one is black, one is white...
Oct 17, 2020
0
This is definitely the worst documentary I've ever seen. The Director/Narrator seems to have started with the assumption that every southerner is a murderous psychopath out to get him. The film starts with an interesting premise of investigating a family legend about a racist murder committed by the Director's great-grandfather, but quickly derails. The death the film's supposed to be investigating is barely touched on, and the movie is padded with bizarre segments of strange visuals accompanied by "experimental" music written by the Director. Perhaps the most telling is this anecdote he relates:
While filming around the town where the killing occurred, he is approached by some children. When he tells them that he's filming a documentary about the area, they go to find their father whom they say has lived there a long time an knows all the local history. The narrator waits for them to leave and then drives away quickly, saying he feared for his safety. He tells this whole story in hushed tones as if he barely escaped with his life.
Production Company:
- Canada Council for the Arts
- Creative Capital
Release Date:Feb 28, 2018
Duration:1 h 30 m
Awards
Ann Arbor Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Locarno Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
Denver Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
