Ferguson: The Interactive Stage Play, Brought to You by a Conservative Filmmaker
Law enforcement officials secure the crime scene and continue to search for evidence outside the police station after two officers were shot and wounded during last night's protest on March 12, 2015 in Ferguson, Missouri.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty ImagesOn August 9, 2014, the day that Ferguson, Mo. teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson, Phelim McAleer was watching a play. The Irish journalist-turned-filmmaker was taking in "verbatim drama" at Edinburgh's annual Fringe Festival. He didn't really see coverage of the happenings in Ferguson until they had made it into the European media, as a straightforward tale of violence against an unarmed black man who'd had his hands up.
"When it’s simplified like that you can see there’s something wrong with the story," McAleer says. "If I’d been in the United States, I might have seen the details come out one by one. In the U.K. the story was presented in a storybook way. From the moment I saw it, I thought: That’s a great, great story. Therefore, it’s too good to be true."