Mary M. Dalton
Dalton@wfu.com

NOTE: To give you complete information, we have included answers from the coproducer, Susan L. Faust, as well.

1. How did you come up with the idea for the film?

Susan: While researching information about a visit to Wake Forest University by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the early 1960s, I learned that 10 Wake Forest University students of that era had been arrested and tried (along with 11 black students from Winston-Salem State) for protesting the segregated lunch counters in downtown Winston-Salem. After grasping the significance of this historical event that had largely been forgotten, Mary and I realized that it ought to be acknowledged and celebrated. With the support of many others from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, and the community, we planned a two-day reunion and celebration. The symposium, "Leadership and Civil Rights: Retrospective and Prospective Visions," was held on February 23-24, 2000 to honor Mr. Carl Matthews - who alone began the protest - and those students from Wake Forest and Winston-Salem State who joined him. The fact that everyone present on February 23, 1960 -- Whites and Blacks -- was arrested and then tried on March 2, 1960 punctuates this event in North Carolina history. The Winston-Salem protest began one week after the more heralded events in Greensboro and came to a successful conclusion in a record 107 days. Thus Winston-Salem was the first community in North Carolina to complete the desegregation of its lunch counters.

Mary: Over the course of working on the symposium, which was really Susan's brainchild, we decided that it would be a shame to bring back the student protesters and not find some way to make their stories more widely available. The documentary was a logical next step.

2. How long did the production process take?

Mary: The interviews and B-roll video were all shot during a one-week period in February 2000, and the final edit was completed a little less than a year later. We had the first public screening of the completed documentary on February 23, 2001, which was a year after the symposium and 41 years to the day after the students' and Carl Matthews' arrest for sitting-in.

3. What challenges did you experience in the creation of the film?

Mary: By far the biggest challenge was locating archival material. Sit-ins in other cities throughout the state were overshadowed by the lunch counter protest in Greensboro because those students were the first to sit-in and get media attention. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of photographs of the actual protest in Winston-Salem, and there wasn't any film or audio documentation of the event. We were really fortunate, however, that the Forsyth Public Library has a wonderful photograph collection that provided us a number of images of Winston-Salem during the late 1950s and early 1960s, but I still would have liked more images of the protest and additional period photographs of the protesters.

4. What is your favorite memory from creating the film?

Susan: My favorite memory is of actually meeting the student protestors. Up until that time I had read about them, written them letters, talked with them on the phone and emailed correspondence to them. The most memorable instant for me was seeing two of the protestors - a white student from Wake Forest and a black student from Winston-Salem State who had walked together from one closed downtown lunch counter to another counter on February 23, 1960 - find each other for the first time in 40 years at the reunion on February 23, 2000 and embrace.

Mary: Aside from meeting the participants, I would have to say I was most moved the first time we put music to the images, interviews, and narration. I think the Wake Forest University Gospel Choir adds immeasurably to the finished piece. We recorded these songs and bridges specifically for the documentary, and we used the two songs that the people interviewed recalled most vividly as an important part of their protest activities to open and close the documentary.

5. When someone has finished watching the film, what do you hope they take away from the experience?

Mary: All along Susan and I have felt strongly that these folks should be recognized for their courage and conviction, and that we wanted their story to speak to another generation. In particular, I tried to present a story that would inspire students and let them know they, too, can make a difference when they do the right thing and work for social change. By choosing to walk into a department store together and sit at the lunch counter as peers-on the surface a simple act-these students and Carl Matthews ultimately changed the way we live in Winston-Salem. It's a powerful story, and I hope that people who encounter it will feel engaged politically and motivated to act for social justice.

6. What type of reaction has your film received from viewers?

Susan: When the documentary premiered we were pleased that the showing was attended by students and faculty from both campuses, members of the larger community, and three of the original protestors arrested in 1960. The reaction from all the audience members was positive. We were happy to hear current students say - as we had hoped viewers would - that they were surprised anything like this had occurred locally in Winston-Salem and they wondered if they would have been courageous enough to take that kind of action.

7. What advice would you give to aspiring young filmmakers?

Mary: I suppose I will offer two ideas that are important to me. First, there are many stories that should be told, and some of them are local. Look around. Second, be aware of the implications of the work you do and take responsibility for it. It really doesn't matter if you are making a documentary or working from a fictional narrative because creative expression is never absent a larger critical context, so choose your projects with an awareness of that.

8. Please tell us about the next film you plan to work on?

Mary: I would like to a make another documentary dealing in some way with indigenous North Carolina potters who make face jugs or passionate collectors of face jugs, because I collect Southern folk pottery. I'd also like to figure out a way to produce one of my screenplays, which are invariably small (read between the lines not high concept) stories about women in transition. In the meantime, though, I'm on a year-long research leave from my teaching job at Wake Forest University, and I'll spend most of that time researching and writing a book on narrative theory and screenwriting.

9. What are your thoughts on the film industry in NC?

Mary: Naturally, I would support any opportunities or enterprises that nurture the work of North Carolina writers, directors, and producers.