TOWER: KEVIN MAITLAND (2016)

Tower is a fascinating documentary made my Kevin Maitland in 2016 and it deals with what is widely regarded to be the first mass shooting on a college campus in the USA. The film uses an mix of archive footage, audio and photography to build the story of a sniper in the titular clock tower at the centre of the university campus of Austin Texas in August 1966 killing 16 people.

However it strays from the usual talking head and archive footage using an inventive animated and re-creation of the events of the massacre. Firstly recordings were made with the original eye witnesses and those caught up in the shootings. Then actors of about the age they would have been in 1966 are used to re-voice their reflections. Then these are rotoscoped and animated both as talking heads and as actors re-enacting key scenes and events. This is combined with the aforementioned archive footage but rather than making it seeming dated with archive footage only brings the whole series of events being discussed to life. Generally the backgrounds are rotoscoped too but often the rotoscoped characters are over super8 looking footage or photos from the actual event.

As well as avoiding the tired archive talking head documentary conventions this clever use of style leads to other interesting experiences for the audience. Firstly it makes it feel contemporary as even though the events happened over 40 years ago the colour, action on screen and movement makes the events seem contemporary, relevant and as though the action is actually being played out in front of your eyes as a living drama. Another bonus for audience and filmmaker is that this style obviously plugs actual gaps in the archive footage. Lastly the animated living style makes the film really accessible. I took a group of 50 students to see a screening in the Hackney Picture-house as part of the London Film Festival. Documentary films can be a hard sell to 16-18 year olds but they overwhelming loved it for the reasons mentioned above which I found really fascinating.

The film does at the end reveal the actual people who bore witness or were caught up in the shootings. The interesting thing is that this was the first time some of them had re-visited the events of that day. Back in the 60's people just buried the stories and did not want to discuss them, there were no counsellors, rehabilitation etc they just had to get on with it. The films power was in getting them to finally tell their stories and the respectful way it handled them the animations almost giving them a distancing effect from the re-living of the events. There are some lovely moments towards the end though when some of them were reunited for the first time since the actual events. The film was also clever in the way it did not really seek to try and understand the motives behind the madness of the sniper who wreaked havoc that day. It was inferred he had mental health issues but by not really addressing this it did in giving the impression that madness such as this could never be understood. The stories were of those caught up in it finally given their voice and the fear, courage, selflessness and character that they all showed on that day.


It is a wonderful text and really was an inspiration in moving my practice forward. I can see using some of it's ideas and technique for my Anonymous concept specifically and also my Nature of Love piece. Specifically the use of rotoscope and animation techniques to keep the identity of the subject obscured and subverted from the audience. Also however it will enable the re-enactment and representation of certain scenes to appear current. The use of voice being recorded then re-recorded by actors who then play out the roles both through talking head and re-enactments had a resonance with me