UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — “Tower,” a documentary recounting the 1966 University of Texas tower shootings, will be shown at 7 p.m. on Nov. 1 and 2 in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Flex Theater. A panel discussion and question-and-answer session will follow the Nov. 1 screening.
While “Tower” does revisit the shootings, it dwells primarily on the aftermath for the victims and a shaken nation left trying to understand. Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation, “Tower” reveals the untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting. Variety describes “Tower” as “a uniquely cinematic memorial.”
Prior to the Nov. 1 screening, clinical psychologist Roger Friedman, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, will read from “Tower Sniper: The Terror of America's First Active Shooter on Campus,” which he co-wrote with Monte and Nathan Akers. Friedman’s reading will take place at 4:30 p.m. at Webster’s Bookstore and Café in downtown State College.
Friedman was personally affected by the tower shooting: his closest childhood friend, Paul Sonntag, was among those shot and killed by the tower sniper.
The upcoming documentary screening and book reading are part of a series named “Talking Together About Guns,” which seeks to foster productive communication about gun violence and its differing effects on individuals and communities across Pennsylvania, the nation, and the globe.
Sponsors of the upcoming events include the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences; University Libraries; the Center for Character, Conscience, and Public Purpose; the Paul Robeson Cultural Center; the College of Communications; the Social Thought Program; the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; the McCourtney Civic Deliberation Professorship; the Rock Ethics Institute; and Webster’s Bookstore and Cafe. Additional “Talking Together About Guns” sponsors include WPSU, which is scheduled to air two documentaries about gun violence this spring: “Peace Officer” and “Armor of Light.”
For more information on “Tower,” visit www.towerdocumentary.com; for more information on “Tower Sniper,” visit www.towersniper.com. For more information on “Talking Together About Guns” and additional upcoming events, contact Rosa Eberly at rhosa@psu.edu.