‘#BlackAtSMU’ documentary premieres, exploring students’ experience with racism on campus

Sprawled across the lawn of Dallas Hall, students and visitors gathered to reckon with some of the most troubling moments in Southern Methodist University’s past at the premiere of the #BlackAtSMU documentary Wednesday night.

The documentary, which was primarily directed, filmed and produced by students from SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts, centers around five tweets posted by Black students using the #BlackAtSMU hashtag in June 2020. The hashtag took hold first in 2015, with students taking to Twitter to share their experiences with racism on campus, before garnering attention again this summer following the murder of George Floyd.

“We want to honor the five stories that we are telling tonight and every person who went to the hashtag and told their stories. Thank you everyone who spoke out on the hashtag #BlackAtSMU — we heard you, and we’re only following in what you’ve done,” said Crislyn Fayson, an SMU junior and co-director of the film before the screening began.

Fayson directed #BlackAtSMU with Aysia Lane, an SMU sophomore. The idea to create a movie about the tweets came originally from a class taught by SMU film professor Amber Bemak. Work toward the documentary began during her nonfiction production class last fall, where students began researching and discussing issues of race on campus. In total, the film took around nine months to produce.

“I found it kind of impossible not to want to tell these stories. You know, these are amazing people that we’ve gotten to meet through this process, whether it’s the talent, whether it’s the people that helped with the research, or the people actually in the doc, every person that tweeted. These stories are unapologetically bold to tell,” said Lane.

The film began by exploring the history of racism at SMU. Anga Sanders, who graduated from SMU in 1970, shared that during her years at the university, members of the Kappa Alpha fraternity would hang Confederate flags and dress up as Confederate soldiers as part of an “Old South” event. In protest, Sanders and other Black students burned Confederate flags at the event.

The film then pivoted toward students’ recent experiences with racism on campus. One Black student remembered hearing students chanting a racial slur across campus following the election of President Donald Trump. Another recalled her white professor asking a white student to read Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” in a “plantation dialect.” Yet another remembered being called a racial slur at a fraternity party.

“It’s very easy to make social issues feel abstract and far away and like they’re not relevant and happening in our communities,” said Jillian Taylor, an SMU sophomore and the film’s producer. “This film, for me personally, what made it really significant is that it was a powerful reminder that racism happens on this campus with people I know all the time. As a white student, it can be so easy to forget that when I’m not the one experiencing it.”

The film was sponsored in part by the SMU Film & Media Arts Division, Ignite/Arts Dallas, the SMU Meadows School of the Arts, the SMU Residence Life & Student Housing Academic Initiatives and the SMU Housing Unification Board.

Lane said the film did not come together without roadblocks along the way.

“We lost our director of photography, we ended up losing our producer and had to find another one, so we had so many hurdles that we had to jump on top of the conceptual parts and the self-doubt of it all,” she said. “We also had to figure out how to shoot in the middle of the pandemic, but the biggest hurdles were conceptual.”

Following the film, audience members participated in a Q&A session with the co-directors, producer and assistant director. They were then invited to participate in a guided discussion about racism on campus with those around them. Trained student facilitators checked in on groups.

In the future, the film is intended to be used as a tool for professors and student organizations on campus to teach students about racism within their communities. Professors and student leaders can reach out to the #BlackAtSMU team to schedule a showing with trained facilitators to lead discussions. A virtual showing is being scheduled for May, and more information can be found at the @blackatsmufilm Instagram page.

Lane said her main hope is that the film inspires cultural change on campus.

“Our main goal is dialogue and conversation, and not the easy kind. I don’t want people walking away feeling warm and fuzzy, because these conversations need to happen, and that can be scary,” she said. “I’m glad that this film can be a part of that process.”