JB: Where did the idea for a film come from? And at what point did you jump onboard?
MK: There's been talk for awhile that a film must be made of Don's story. And a little more than a year ago, I was contacted by Steve Wimberly in an e-mail. Steve's from Alabama, had done graduate studies at Harvard, and had already begun the self-appointed task of filming interviews for the project he called "Killing Atticus Finch" after a phrase one of his interviewees - Chip Hill, a former aide to Don - had used. He posted a trailer, which I saw was great. It hit all the points I knew about the story and then some. I introduced Steve by e-mail to Maria Florio, a friend I'd met through Tim Carpenter of PDA and had come to really like. She's produced hot political documentaries like "Murder, Spies and Voting Lies" "The Cry of the Snow Lion" about the Dalai Lama and Tibet, and "Broken Rainbow" about our country's betrayal of native Americans - that won an Oscar.
She knew Don and agreed to sign on as a producer if I would too. Immediately, she wanted Steve to film a wrap-around intro for a new trailer and she got Martin Sheen t do it. Steve came to LA to plot out the project and film Marty in my library. We all circulated money asks for the GoFundMe site. We had to give up the title Killing Atticus Finch because Harper Lee wouldn't let us have rights to the name. I think it's just as well, it's confusing now, since Lee herself "killed" the moral stature of Atticus in her new-old book (which seemed to me more a bid for dough from her publisher, but oh, well.) It's now Atticus v. The Architect - that's a reference to Rove without using his actual name - and subtitled The Political Assassination of Don Siegelman. Steve's doing more interviews, traveling. Don is still a radioactive subject in Alabama and elsewhere.
We'd all hoped this film would help free him, but the silence surrounding his case has made things go slow. It will be Don's legacy and set things straight no matter what. His treatment has been cruel beyond words. WHen the story comes out it will enrage people. Don's not the first or only person to be framed and jailed unjustly. But he's prominent, and everything that happened to him will have high visibility. I think of it as being a part of the end of political white collar crimes - election fraud and political "disappearance" - because people just won't let it happen anymore, no matter what the politics. It's violent politics, politics of deceit that are the enemy, and we have to get tough on that, not on political opponents!
JB: I can't wait to see it! On a more pragmatic note, are you done raising money for the project, Mimi? And what's the projected release date for Atticus v. The Architect?
MK: We're almost to the $90,000 goal on GoFundMe. People see the trailer and want to be part of righting this wrong. It matters to all Americans, and it's not a partisan issue though the injustice was viciously partisan - for no good reason but, it seems, the winner-take-all mentality that was the GOP "Southern strategy" under Rove. As if an entire region of the U.S. could be put to heel...anyway, there will be more budgeting for editing, and we invite contributors to help. We want to get this done by spring or summer 2016. We want to go into the 2016 election with our eyes wide open as to what is possible when citizens aren't paying attention. If we love our country and our planet, justice and mercy in turn must be our way forward, not framing and fraud.
Watch the trailer here.
JB: This all sounds very good. Anything you'd like to add before we wrap this up?
MK: Just that I've thought a lot about the "family values" of the party that put Don in prison. They wounded his family deeply. Lori, Don's wife, had already been hurt by a drunk driver years ago, so badly Don had thought she was dead after the impact in the passenger's seat. She survived. They've parented two wonderful kids who are very much on their own, however, as this has happened to their father - they went from high (the governor's kids!) to low (the children of a corrupt, jailed official.) They're both committed to public service, and his daughter is deeply empathic with people who have been treated unfairly by society. They would have been like this anyway because of their upbringing, but it's been cruel to see how their foundation was ripped out from under them for so many years.
I really want the family to heal. I know good can come from bad. But what of suffering inflicted by cruelty and political vengeance - on the part of people who say they do everything they do to, basically, save innocent life or something like that? I believe in the transforming power of conscience. I want the movie about Don to reach that deep into those who might have had a hand in this. And they'll stop their way of thinking, and never act in this way again against anyone. And the election shifting piece - that can and does still happen. Kentucky just had a weird election and no-one's questioning the results or asking to have a public hand-count to check their accuracy. Yet eight election officials in a Kentucky county (Clay) are doing hard time right now for having confessed to, and been convicted of, election manipulation in '02, '04 and '06. It's not paranoid to ask for proof of our election results. It's naive not to - and self-destroying not to. That's another lesson from the story of how Don was politically assassinated. Those paper ballots were removed from public view under threat of criminal indictment by another of Don's political opponents, William Pryor (who had, in that same election, won the office of Attorney General). Why? What a travesty - we citizens have to start following what happens to our votes after we cast them - and stop putting up with this robbery.
JB: Amen. Thanks so much for talking with me, Mimi. Good luck with this really important film.
***
Postscript: Today, December 18th, President Obama granted clemency to 95 drug offenders and pardoned two other prisoners, one convicted for counterfeiting and the other for aiding and abetting bank fraud, in time for Christmas. Although Don Siegelman was convicted for something that is not actually a crime, he was not among those granted either a pardon or clemency.
Mimi's partial comment: Don's supporters have learned that disappointment is our constant companion...Meanwhile, so much suffering.
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