| Anatomy of a Hate Crime | |
|---|---|
| Based on | True crime |
| Written by | Max Ember |
| Directed by | Tim Hunter |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Daniel Licht |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
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| Producer | Bill Bannerman |
| Cinematography | Danny Nowak |
| Editor | Sunny Hodge |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | MTV |
| Release | January 10, 2001 |
Anatomy of a Hate Crime is a 2001 American made-for-television docudrama based on a true crime; it was written by Max Ember and directed by Tim Hunter. It stars Cy Carter, Brendan Fletcher, and Ian Somerhalder. The film is based on the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard. It premiered on MTV on December 10, 2001, and was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series. [2] After the broadcast, MTV went dark for 17 1⁄2 hours while it aired a continuous on-screen scroll listing the names of hundreds of United States hate crime victims.
Based on the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard.
Immediately following the broadcast, MTV News hosted a special on hate crimes, and then the cable station aired a continuous on-screen scroll listing the names of hundreds of United States hate crime victims. [3] [4] The scroll ran continuously and commercial free for seventeen and-a-half hours, and was the first time in its 20 year history, the network went dark. [4] It was estimated that it cost MTV about $2 million in advertising revenue. [3] [4]
Writer Max Ember said the script wasn't really about Matthew Shepard, but "about the murder of Matthew Shepard". [5] He thought by portraying the story from the point of view of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, the two murderers, "that something very unique could happen". [5] He said "Aaron and Russell didn't have any great political agenda, any great belief system in fact at all". [5] Ember went on to opine that "they didn't hate gay people any more than anyone else they knew...they didn't wake up in the morning and say 'we're gonna kill a fag'...nonetheless that's exactly what happened and I thought it's worthy of discovering why that would happen." [5]
Cy Carter recalled the project being secretive in nature when he first auditioned. He said when he first read the script "everyone's names were different", but when he was asked back for a second audition, they told him it was a Matthew Shepard story. [5] Carter said it was difficult to re-create the beating/murder scene, and it left the cast and production crew all in tears. He said Brendan Fletcher and Ian Somerhalder, were both in tears because "they had to go places inside of themselves I'm sure were kind of scary to rummage up that kind of hatred, and this wasn't even real, but just to see that, a tenth of what it would have been like for him [Shepard], just made them realize what an important film they were working on". [5]
The Matthew Shepard Foundation put out the following statement in relation to the film:
"While we appreciate MTV's efforts to fight anti-gay discrimination and hate crimes, and support the social justice organizations participating in the network's year-long pro-social campaign, the Shepard family wants to make clear that it had no involvement in and does not give its blessing or endorsement to the MTV film Anatomy of a Hate Crime." [5]
The Washington Post wrote in their review that the best parts of the film are "the performances of Cy Carter as the 21-year-old Shepard and Brendan Fletcher as one of his killers, Aaron McKinney...the worst part is that writer Max Ember couldn't settle on a timeline and so jumps all over the calendar like a jack rabbit...murder anatomies, especially ones hoping to teach lessons, should be methodical and thorough, and this hopscotching technique is distracting and lazy". [6]
The Baltimore Sun said it is "not only a good movie, but also one with the potential to do good". They praised Ian Somerhalder's performance as "outstanding", and said the character he portrayed, Russell Henderson, is "made comprehensible by a smart script", [however] the producers took a big risk "humanizing someone who committed such a monstrous act...but they are wise enough to understand that the only way we will understand our own capacity for hate is to recognize our own worst impulses and passions in the killers...In the end, this is what makes the film worthy of being judged as art rather than just propaganda". [7]
Matthew Wayne Shepard was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died six days later from severe head injuries received during the attack.
James Byrd Jr. was an African American man who was murdered by three white men, two of whom were avowed white supremacists, in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged him for three miles behind a Ford pickup truck along an asphalt road. Byrd, who remained conscious for much of his ordeal, was killed about halfway through the dragging when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. The murderers drove on for another 1+1⁄2 miles before dumping his torso in front of a Black church.
Jesse William Dirkhising, also known as Jesse Yates, was an American teenager from Prairie Grove, Arkansas. He was staying with two men who bound, drugged, tortured, and repeatedly raped him. He died from drugging and positional asphyxia during the ordeal.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1998.
The Laramie Project is a 2000 American play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project about the reaction to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. The murder was denounced as a hate crime and brought attention to the lack of hate crime laws in various states, including Wyoming.
The Matthew Shepard Story is a 2002 made-for-television film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, based on the true story of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay youth who was murdered in 1998. The film scenario written by John Wierick and Jacob Krueger, it starred Shane Meier as Matthew and Stockard Channing as Judy Shepard and Sam Waterston as Dennis Shepard.
Sakia Gunn was a 15-year-old African American lesbian who was murdered in what has been deemed a hate crime in Newark, New Jersey. Richard McCullough, was charged with her death and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 2008, a documentary was released about Gunn's murder, titled Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project.
True Life is an American documentary television series that aired on MTV from March 31, 1998 to June 21, 2017. Each episode follows a particular topic, such as heroin addiction as in the first episode – "Fatal Dose". The show is created by following a series of subjects by a camera crew through a certain part of their lives. A four-episode revival series titled True Life/Now aired in 2019 and a crime investigation iteration called True Life Crime premiered in 2020.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is an American coalition of more than 240 national civil and human rights organizations and acts as an umbrella group for American civil and human rights. Founded as the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) in 1950 by civil rights activists Arnold Aronson, A. Philip Randolph, and Roy Wilkins, the coalition has focused on issues ranging from educational equity to justice reform to voting rights.
Romaine Patterson is an American LGBT rights activist, radio personality, and author. She first received national attention for her activism at the funeral of murdered gay student Matthew Shepard; the two became friends when Shepard moved to Casper, Wyoming to attend college. For twelve years up until June 2015, she and Derek Hartley co-hosted the Derek and Romaine show on SiriusXM's OutQ.
The Laramie Project is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Moisés Kaufman and starring Nestor Carbonell, Christina Ricci, Dylan Baker, Terry Kinney, and Lou Ann Wright. Based on the play of the same name, the film tells the story of the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. It premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and was first broadcast on HBO in March 2002.
18th Annual GLAAD Media Awards (2007) were presented at four separate ceremonies: March 26 in New York City; April 14 in Los Angeles; April 28 in San Francisco; and May 10 in Miami. The awards were presented to honor "fair, accurate and inclusive" representations of gay individuals in the media.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a landmark United States federal law, passed on October 22, 2009, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009, as a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010. Conceived as a response to the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., both in 1998, the measure expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
The Matthew Shepard Foundation is an LGBT nonprofit organization, headquartered in Casper, Wyoming, which was founded in December 1998 by Dennis and Judy Shepard in memory of their son, Matthew, who was murdered in 1998. The Foundation runs education, outreach, and advocacy programs.
Jason Gage was a 29-year-old gay man who was murdered in his apartment in Waterloo, Iowa, United States. The murder was compared by the national press to the slaying of Matthew Shepard and prompted a push for citywide laws protecting LGBT people.
Cultural depictions of Matthew Shepard include notable films, musical works, novels, plays, and other works inspired by the 1998 Matthew Shepard murder, investigation, and resulting interest the case brought to the topic of hate crime. The best known is the stage play The Laramie Project, which was adapted into an HBO movie of the same name. Matthew Wayne Shepard was an openly gay university student who was brutally attacked near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998 and left for dead by his attackers.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of Wyoming may face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Wyoming since 1977, and same-sex marriage was legalized in the state in October 2014. Wyoming statutes do not address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBT people is illegal under federal law. In addition, the cities of Jackson, Casper, and Laramie have enacted ordinances outlawing discrimination in housing and public accommodations that cover sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Book of Matt is a book by Stephen Jimenez. Published by Steerforth in 2013, the book is an investigation into the murder of Matthew Shepard. It concludes that the crime was not a hate crime based on Shepherd's sexual orientation, but that he was a methamphetamine dealer who knew his killers, and it was a drug transaction gone awry.
Stephen Jimenez is an American journalist and television producer, known primarily as the author of The Book of Matt.
Russell Henderson (1924–2015), was a British-Caribbean jazz musician.
