A small town still wrestling with the ghost it never exorcised.
Examines Pulaski, Tennessee, the town where the Ku Klux Klan was founded right after the Civil War, and where today its memory still runs very deep. Combining interviews with local residents, attendees at a Klan rally and counter demonstrators; historical photos; contemporary footage; scenes of a museum exhibit of the last-known original Klan robe; and a cross burning ceremony by the Klan; the video reveals Pulaski's historical and ongoing relationship to this controversial organization. We learn how Pulaski's citizens remember and reconcile the history of the Klan, how they continue to be divided about the organization's meaning and role, and how such history remains contested for Americans.
Direction
Donahue lets townspeople hang themselves with their own words.
Editing
Jarring cuts between archival pride and present-day denial.
Director
Paul Donahue
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pulaski's 'First Monday' trade day still attracts Klan sympathizers; the documentary captures a tension the town prefers to keep unspoken.
Released pre-9/11, the film anticipated how 'economic anxiety' would become coded language for white grievance politics.
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