Lesson Overview 

4 Little Girls Movie Questions (see my page on Movie Questions).  You can also see my first film that I showed in this class, The Return of Martin Guerre, for more reasoning on how and why I choose a specific movie.  In a nutshell there are two different types of questions - those in bold that the students answer while they are watching the movie (it keeps them focused and on track) and those questions in italics that the students answer for homework.  Each of the latter questions is a kind of mini-essay that requires them to use what they found in their reading of the novel, our discussions & group works, and their viewing of the movie.

Here are the instructions from the handout (found below) and the first two questions  If there was any time left in the period after showing the respective parts,  I would give students time to work on the italicized movie questions:

TRAUMATIC SCENE ALERT: part II of this movie contains graphic depictions of the bodies of the 4 little girls’ dead bodies;, if you wish you may choose to not watch this part of the movie, but instead listen to the audio of the documentary with your heads down or turned away from screen.  Briefly answer ALL not italicized questions and the Five Italicized (3 in Part 1, 2 in Part 2) questions.

1. How does what the blind man says (from part 1) echo Guitar’s words about white people and mental illness?  Remember how Guitar contradicts himself – first he says the mental illness is an excuse, then…

*2. Spike Lee presents 2 very contradictory views of the fire hoses used against protestors.  *How do those 2 views echo misunderstandings views of the struggle?  of African-American lives? Recent (2020) events in our country have shown how people from different backgrounds can view the same event (ie the shooting of a young man in Ferguson, Mo; or the killing of George Floyd) and see very different stories.