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FILM RECOUNTS MASSACRE OF BLACKS
THREE PARTNERS PRODUCE A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT A CIVIL WAR
INCIDENT IN WHICH 350 PEOPLE WERE KILLED.
By Tanya Flanagan
Las Vegas Review Journal - Friday, September 19, 1997
Within 20 minutes, 350 people died at Fort Pillow, Tenn.,
on April 12, 1864, in what some call a massacre and others a small
battle in the midst of the Civil War.
For Stan Armstrong, it is a time in history that has been forgotten.
For the past five years Armstrong has labored to create a 47-minute
documentary chronicling that horrific yet historic day.
Confederate soldiers on horseback rode into the fort and demanded
that former slaves who joined the Union Army fight instead to uphold
slavery.
When the black soldiers refused, they were killed, Armstrong said.
Nathan Forrest, a slave trader, horse trader and cotton farmer turned
Confederate Army general, led that massacre. He is the focus of
the documentary.
Forrest was a staunch supporter of the union concept, but even more,
he was a loyalist to the Southern way of slavery, so when Tennessee
seceded he joined the Army. He became the grand wizard of the Ku
Klux Klan after the war.
A sneak preview of the film will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the
West Las Vegas Art Center, 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd. The event is free
and open to the public. A panel discussion, "Blacks in Media,
Film and Television," also is planned.
Armstrong said Sankofa, an African saying that means "one must
return to the past in order to move forward," was his purpose
for doing the film.
He said Thursday that he hopes the documentary will educate people
about blacks and the Civil War. He wants blacks to better understand
their history so they can define their future.
Armstrong said he tried to convey the symbolism of the time period.
Forrest has been described as a "born military genius."
But Armstrong said his intent is not to glorify Forrest, but rather
to show how he was a product of the time in which he lived and how
his actions shaped blacks in America.
Al Gourrier, Clark County School District community development
specialist and president of the Southern Nevada Black Cultural Awareness
Society, likened Forrest to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
"Lee was symbolic of the Confederate Army," Gourrier said.
"At the time he was considered the most promising soldier in
the army. Lee said he was a Southerner by birth and duty bound to
provide leadership for his Southern land when he was asked to fight
with the Union."
Said Armstrong, "Black people tend to forget about their history
or they don't want to know about their history."
Samuel Smith, who has a bachelor's degree in African American studies
and owns the Native Son Bookstore at D Street and Jackson Avenue,
called the massacre real.
"It is a real-life battle. What happened happened,'' Smith
said. "... He (Armstrong) has compiled more than probably anyone
on that. It is hard to get some stuff on it. I knew about it and
he took it to another level. Forrest ended up leading the Ku Klux
Klan. I have Civil War tapes and none of the battles, nothing features
us. We had about a quarter million (blacks) die. There were just
minor references (in the tapes)."
Gourrier noted, "We have been taught how to be white. In a
very similar fashion, they (slave owners) were ingrained in this
way of life and thought they were doing the right thing. But it
was a morally wrong system and they failed to recognize the Negro
as a human being."
He said attitudes by whites have changed over the last 25 years
from a desire to lynch blacks to a move to offer an apology for
slavery.
He and his partners, Josef Meditz and Jeanette Sadoski of Armstrong
Productions, hope to market the film to the Public Broadcast Station,
Black Entertainment Television or cable's American History channel
for release during Black History Month.
The film is expected to be completed in October.
Copyright © 1997, Las Vegas Review Journal
STAN ARMSTRONG: JOURNEY OF A FILMMAKER
By Chuck Baker
Scope Magazine - From the April 4, 1998 Edition
On April 12, 1864, on the banks of the Mississippi River
50 miles north of Memphis, Tennessee, Confederate General Nathan
Bedford Forrest led 1500 men in the Battle of Ft. Pillow. Occupied
by the advancing Union army, the Confederate fort housed some 600
people: 300 white Union officers and enlisted men, along with 300
African-Americans, most of whom were newly freed slaves seeking
refuge. Forrest's troops surrounded the fort; commanding officer
Major Lionel Booth refused to surrender. Overtaking the fort, Forrest
ordered the Union Jack down. As the flag of the Confederacy rose
in its place, Booth allegedly directed his soldiers "to kill
everyone in sight." More than 500 people -- including women
and children begging for mercy on their knees -- died in the slaughter
that followed.
This little-known story of the Battle of Ft. Pillow and its bloody
aftermath is one that has not been told on film -- until now. Las
Vegas filmmaker Stan Armstrong has dedicated the past four years
of his life to making a documentary that explores all aspects of
the controversial Civil War incident. During the course of this
four-year journey of discovery, Armstrong has overcome all the usual
obstacles documentary filmmakers face -- research, funding, production
problems -- and more. But the determined African-American history
buff ultimately prevailed, recently premiering The Battle of Ft.
Pillow and the Birth of the KKK at the West Las Vegas Library Theatre
on D Street not far from where he grew up.
Just how Armstong managed to get this picture made is as good a
story as the one he tells in the film....A filmmaker is born
The West Las Vegas Library Theatre was a fitting setting for the
premiere -- and not just because it sits in Armstrong's old stomping
grounds. Las Vegas -- and Las Vegans -- have been instrumental in
the making of Armstrong's film from day one. He first heard about
the Battle of Ft. Pillow from the late UNLV Professor Roosevelt
Fitzgerald, whom he credits not only with sparking his interest
in this particular event, but in raising his consciousness about
the black experience on film as well. Until meeting Fitzgerald,
Armstrong knew little about the history of blacks in movie making.
This lack of awareness is not surprising. Like many black children
in America, Armstrong grew up watching mostly white people in movies
-- a fact which did not stop him from falling in love with film.
As a kid at Kit Carson Elementary School, his favorite film star
was Johnny Weissmuller of the famed Tarzan flicks, with tough guys
James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart ranking close behind. He also enjoyed
World War II films such as The Best Years of Our Lives, and TV shows
like "Hogan's Heroes."
As he grew older, so did his hunger for the medium. Armstrong remembers
the very moment when he knew he had to become a filmmaker: "My
brother and I saw Bonnie & Clyde with Faye Dunaway and Warren
Beatty, and I was just hooked."
After graduating from Rancho High School in the 1970s, Armstrong
eventually kept his early promise to himself, attending UNLV and
gravitating toward film classes. There, Professor Fitzgerald exposed
him to ethnic awareness in film, and vintage portrayals of blacks
in movies. Armstrong had long been fascinated by history, a fascination
born of his father's storytelling. "My interest in history
came from my dad. He grew up in Louisiana during the Depression,
and he would tell me stories about the hardships, how it was in
the South for a black man."
Studying with Fitzgerald led to Armstrong's realization that he
could marry his love of history and his desire to make films by
making documentaries. His first attempts to do just that were the
two student films he produced in 1990, both on historical subjects.
The first was a five-minute film he wrote and directed about a Jewish
girl in a Nazi prison camp. The second -- a more elaborate production
-- was a reenactment of the John Dillinger slaying in front of Chicago's
Biograph Theatre.
"It was shot right on 4th Street on a really cold night, "
remembers Armstrong. "We used an old porno theater to double
as the Biograph. I don't think it's there any more, but the manager
was a big supporter of college kids." The production cost $500
-- money mostly raised by Armstrong's mother, whom Armstrong describes
as "one of my biggest supporters." Most of the $500 went
to cover the cost of renting period cars and costumes; the crew
consisted of about 20 of Armstrong's friends.
Making these student films only whetted Armstrong's appetite for
bigger and better productions. When he saw the Ken Burns TV documentary
about the Civil War, he knew what he had to do.
"I thought it was neat how [Burns] brought the war to us in
still pictures, " says Armstrong, who believed he could bring
the Battle of Ft. Pillow to life in the same way. When he graduated
from UNLV in 1992, he had one goal: to make a documentary about
what really happened at Ft. Pillow in 1864.
Two years passed before Armstrong made any real progress toward
this goal; in the end, it took a family tragedy to prompt Armstrong
to act.
"In 1994 I lost my brother, " says Armstrong. "I
realized how short life was. I didn't have the money or resources
to do anything, but I made a firm decision to get the money [to
make the film]." Armstrong scraped together $600 and traveled
to Memphis to scout locations and make connections -- never dreaming
at the time that it would take him four years to finance and complete
the project. His mother continued to support the project, as did
many other local blacks. Sam Smith of the Native Son Bookstore and
Afrocentric Center, who supplied him not only with money, but with
books and reference literature about the Civil War. Armstrong also
found backers among "whites who seemed to be a little bit more
liberal toward the black cause."
Still, money was tight. Armstrong continued his research, determined
to learn all there was to know about Ft. Pillow and the formidable
General Forrest. Controversy surrounded both the incident and the
man; eyewitness accounts regarding the massacre contradicted one
another. Armstrong found that even Forrest's own statements regarding
the course of events and his part in those events varied; some proclaimed
his innocence in the slaughter, others hinted at darker motivations.
Regardless, Armstrong knew Forrest's story was a fascinating one.
A slave owner who took 45 of his own slaves into battle with him,
Forrest played a pivotal role not only in the Civil War but after
the war as well, serving as the first Imperial Wizard of the newly
formed Ku Klux Klan. Later, however, in a fit of conscience Forrest
abandoned the Klan, denounced its activities, and even contributed
to black causes -- including the building of black churches.
"Forrest found religion, " says Armstrong. "He wanted
to make his peace with God and with the United States of America."
The more Armstrong discovered about Ft. Pillow and General Forrest,
the more determined he was to see the project through, to tell the
story so few Americans -- black or white -- knew anything about.
By 1995, Armstrong was drafting his script and contacting the History
Channel and PBS about his plans. Although noncommittal at that time,
they did give him production tips and equipment. By 1997, Armstrong
also had gained the backing of several local black businessmen who
had a deep interest in the Civil War. Local bookstore owner Sam
Smith explains: "Blacks first had to learn the lie, and then
learn the truth. Stan was probing the truth."
Armstrong's biggest break came in 1997, when he met two people who
would provide both considerable financial and moral support.
"I was in the gym, exercising, " remembers Armstrong.
"I struck up a conversation with a lady [who] was intrigued
with the story, and she and her husband joined the team." The
lady was Jeanette Sadoski, who loaned $5, 000 to the project, and
became the associate producer and writer. Her ex-husband, Terry,
also worked on the project. For Jeanette, Armstrong's passion for
the project was key. "More than anything, I saw how much he
wanted his dream to come true, " says Sadoski. "That's
all he lived for, to see this film completed. I love history, but
my true interest is people. I wanted him to finalize his dream."
Sadowski threw herself into the project as much as possible, researching,
writing, and traveling to the South. "It was a compelling story,
absolutely. It's something everyone needs to know about."
Later, Armstrong met another individual, Sheri Campos, who also
loaned substantial funds. With this infusion of capital, Armstrong
was able to travel to Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi
to film on location. He was able to solicit the services of several
Civil War reenactment groups, which duplicated the Battle of Ft.
Pillow while Armstrong's cameras were rolling.
Back home with the footage, the editing process began in earnest.
Armstrong's on-line editor was Las Vegan Larry Uelmen, at Channel
5. According to Uelmen, when Armstrong brought the project to him
at the TV station for editing, "He had lots of material, but
no real glue to put it together." Uelmen helped "set a
style" for the documentary, steering Armstrong through the
painstaking editing process.
With the editing behind him, Armstrong was ready to show his film.
By all accounts, the premiere of The Battle of Ft. Pillow and the
Birth of the Ku Klux Klan at the West Las Vegas Library Theatre
was a success. Watching his film with an audience for the first
time was an exciting experience for Armstrong -- but one that sent
him back to the editing room for a final polish. Now in negotiations
with the cable TV networks, Armstrong hopes to announce a deal to
air the film nationwide in the very near future.
In the meantime, Armstrong is working on a screenplay version of
Ft. Pillow with co-writer Josef Meditz. Meditz, an old friend from
UNLV, served as a writer and researcher on the documentary.
"I also co-produced it, " says Meditz. "I was there
from the beginning." Meditz feels strongly that the story is
an important one. "It was an unknown battle where 500 or 600
people were massacred, but you never knew about it. Forrest became
the head of the KKK, but you never heard about it in the history
books. The whole KKK was tied back to this one battle, and we still
have it now." As much as they believe in the documentary, Armstrong
and Meditz also have high hopes for the screenplay.
"Of course I want the documentary to be aired nationwide, but
I would also love for this to be a motion picture, " says Armstrong.
"I'd like a company like Turner to pick up the screenplay."
Screenplay hopes aside, Armstrong does not intend to abandon the
documentary form. "I feel my true calling is in documentary
films. This is what I want to do." His next project, currently
in the research stage, will deal with another little known aspect
of the Civil War -- the slaves who fought for the Confederate cause.
Armstrong is hopeful that the success of The Battle of Ft. Pillow
and the Birth of the Ku Klux Klan portends well for the financing
of this new film. "I can understand people not wanting to fund
the first project. You really can't blame them. But things are different
now."
Different or not, it's unlikely that this Las Vegan filmmaker will
throw in the script any time soon. The making of his first film
has shown Armstrong that persistence is all.
"Anybody, " Armstrong says, "... if they have a dream,
if they have a goal, they can make it." Armstrong credits his
power to dream -- and the support of his family and friends, particularly
his mother -- with his survival in a world where many black men
do not survive.
"I know this is an old cliche, " says Armstrong, "but
most of my friends [from D Street] are either dead or in prison.
And that's the honest-to-God truth." Armstrong's mother passed
away two years ago, but he said he feels her influence and guidance
every day. Professionally, his influences range from John Ford and
John Singleton, to Spike Lee, Ken Burns and Ed Wood. The Ed Wood
influence is particularly strong, since Armstrong has struck up
a friendship with two local names in filmmaking: Dolores Fuller,
Ed Wood's former girlfriend and mentor, and her husband Philip Chamberlin,
film historian and past director of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts & Sciences. Big supporters of Armstrong's low-budget work,
both have nothing but praise for The Battle of Ft. Pillow and the
Birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
"I thought it was an extremely immense accomplishment, "
says Chamberlin, "considering the low budget and necessary
constrictions you have when there is no motion picture footage available
of the period. I expect a great deal from Armstrong. He's extremely
talented and dedicated."
It's that dedication that Armstrong believes separates him from
many aspiring local filmmakers. "I went to school with a lot
of kids who had a lot of great ambitions and dreams. They'd sit
around the coffee houses and talk about their favorite films and
ideas for films. But two or three years [later], most of them are
just holding regular jobs on the Strip." He recalls one woman
who maxed out her credit cards to make a film. "She wasn't
a bad filmmaker. But when I talked to her a year later, she said
she was pretty much out of it. It was too much work."
To his credit, Armstrong never let a little hard work get in his
way of telling the stories he feels need to be told. Tell them he
must, no matter what the cost.
"My mom used to say that there is nothing new under the sun,
" say Armstrong. "The only thing new is the history you
don't know." The history you don't know is what drives Armstrong
to make films.
"In today's society we don't know enough about our past. It's
important for us to know there are things we don't know, "
he maintains. "There are a lot of black stories that have been
swept under the rug that really need to be told. Ft. Pillow happened
less than 130 years ago... we should be aware of what's happening,
or we'll keep making the same mistakes."
Copyright © 1998, Scope Magazine
FILM PRODUCER PAYS HOMAGE TO UNLV
Rebel Yell Newspaper (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) - Dec.
10, 1998 Edition
Stan Armstrong, an African American UNLV film school alumnus,
has recently touched an area of U.S. history neglected by many historians,
until now.
His first full-length documentary focuses on slaves who fought
for their masters in the Civil War. The movie, "The Battle
of Fort Pillow and the Birth of the KKK," focuses on the little-known
details of the history of the emancipation efforts of the time.
"The documentary was inspired by the fact that we are so ignorant
as Americans, about our past," said Armstrong. "The Civil
War was one of the most influential parts of our history."
The documentary took Armstrong four years to complete. It entailed
actual on-location research in places like Memphis and Nashville.
To find out why blacks fought for the Confederacy, Armstrong found
himself interviewing descendants of the actual slaves who did the
fighting.
"Down south, they have a family culture and pride that we
just don't have here," continued Armstrong. "There they
have a strong sense of heritage. It's not like here where you can
only remember back to your grandparents. People back there actually
know who their ancestors are, who they fought for and are proud
to be able to show you their cemeteries. They are very proud of
their land and their culture."
Though history gives us some details about the events of blacks
in the Confederacy, Armstrong's production team found themselves
focused on the effort of finding first-hand information. "A
lot of people don't know exactly what the South was about,"
Armstrong said. "We see the Confederate flag as a sign of hatred,
because we know of people who have been lynched. What we don't see
is the flag-bearer for the Confederate South who was black - and
buried with the flag during the war. Now I would have fought for
the North, but few people are aware of the fact that 50,000 blacks
fought for the South.
"Whether they didn't know better, or were just loyal to their
masters, there were quite a few of them, even though most hated
the oppression and fought for freedom."
Film critics have hailed the film as "a crucial part of American
history," "containing facts that few of us know,"
and "an interesting academic documentary."
Armstrong delivers his story with humble gratitude, thanking his
late mother for her support for the first film. The film received
an honorable mention at the first annual Orleans Film Festival.
"There were just so many trials and tribulations that men of
that time went through to make our country what it is today, that
I plan on doing more of the same type of movies," Armstrong
said.
Though Armstrong does not want to be dubbed a historical filmmaker,
he is interested in pursuing documentaries about other forgotten
people of the Civil War, such as women's and native American involvement.
His love for the Civil War histories comes from his desire to raise
the awareness of his countrymen.
Armstrong's next documentary, started seven months ago and scheduled
to be complete in February, is called "Forgotten Heroes and
the Confederacy." So far, PBS and the History Channel have
expressed interest in airing it nation-wide.
Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux
Klan, was a central character of the film. "I needed a good
Southern accent for the part, so I asked Dr. Christopher Hudgins
of the English department to do it," Armstrong said. "He
agreed and played the voice of Forrest in the story."
UNLV has influenced Armstrong's desire for these movies in many
other ways. Armstrong credits Dr. Barbara Cloud of the Communications
Department for getting the ball rolling for his first documentary.
"Dr. Francisco Menendez, a professor in the film department,
taught me the art of filmmaking along with Hart Wegner," Armstrong
said. "Roosevelt Fitzgerald, who passed away a couple years
ago, encouraged me to do the first documentary, specifically that
title," Armstrong continued. "He and I were extremely
tight."
The Civil War constitutes an influential part of United States
history. "In many ways, we re still fighting it," Armstrong
believes.
Copyright © 1998, Rebel Yell
KLVX-TV TO AIR LOCAL CIVIL WAR PIECE
Las Vegas Review Journal - Monday, March 22, 1999
A local filmmaker's Civil War documentary about a massacre
of black and white Union troops -- led by the Confederate general
who helped found the Ku Klux Klan -- will be broadcast at 9 p.m.
Tuesday on KLVX-TV, Channel 10.
Filmmaker Stan Armstrong's "The Forgotten Battle of Fort Pillow
and the Birth of the KKK" focuses on an April 1864 clash between
black and white Union troops and Confederate forces led by Maj.
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. The first portion of the documentary
includes archival photographs and re-enactments of the battle, in
which Forrest's troops killed Union soldiers attempting to the surrender
-- including 238 of the 262 black troops, ex-slaves recruited to
fight for the federal cause.
Armstrong's documentary "deals with the controversy -- was
it or wasn't it a massacre?" comments the filmmaker, who shot
portions of the hour-long project at the actual battle site, now
a state historical park located near Henning, Tenn., "Roots"
author Alex Haley's hometown.
The documentary also explores Forrest's role as the first Imperial
Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist group formed in
Tennessee after the Civil War ended in 1865.
Actor Steve McIntyre -- described by Armstrong as a "dead ringer"
for Forrest -- plays the Confederate general; an associate professor
of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Christopher Hudgins,
supplies Forrest's Tennessee-accented voice.
Armstrong, a lifelong Las Vegan and UNLV graduate, is currently
at work on a second Civil War documentary, "Black Confederates."
Copyright © 1999, Las Vegas Review Journal
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