In March 1964, Harper Lee gave her last in-depth interview. Since then, the resolutely private author has declined desperate requests asking her to speak about the acclaimed 1960 novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
This presents a bit of a challenge to a filmmaker who’s long desired to make a movie about Lee. “She has in the past written ‘hell no’ on the tops of letters from reporters,” said Mary McDonagh Murphy, whose documentary about Lee’s first and only book screens Saturday night in Decatur. “I felt fortunate her agent even agreed to meet with me. I did not expect to talk to her.”
Over the years, Murphy pitched pieces about the novel when she was a producer at CBS, but the consensus held that without an interview with the author herself, there was no news story.
On her own as an independent filmmaker, she decided a documentary would be effective even without an exclusive sit-down with the literary legend. The result, “Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,' ” is an enlightened love letter to the novel.
But more than that, rare interviews Murphy obtained with Lee’s sister Alice and her New York friends Joy and Michael Brown -- who on Christmas 1956 gave Lee money to take a year off from her job as an airline reservations clerk to write full time -- tease out human elements to balance the praise. We hear of the two-year editing process Lee described as a "long and hopeless period." The controversy that Truman Capote claimed authorship and Lee's fear of failure after a near-perfect debut.
Choking back tears, many cultural luminaries, including Oprah Winfrey and Tom Brokaw, share their recollections of the novel. And numerous authors weigh in on the influence of Lee’s prose.
“I read the book five or six times while making the film and did so many interviews,” Murphy said. “Every time I would interview someone new, I thought, ‘Can anyone tell me anything I haven’t heard before?’ And invariably, people always did.”
Gabriel Wardell and Paula Martinez, former directors of Atlanta Film Festival 365, asked Murphy to bring her film here when they saw it at Birmingham's Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in September. It’s a good fit for their new film series, Decatur Docs, that brings Atlanta audiences consistent access to meatier movie alternatives.
"Audiences are faced with fewer venues to see challenging work in a group setting," Wardell said. "International films have all but vanished from the screens of the art houses, and documentaries and small indies without stars are an endangered species at the theaters. We plan to show something more substantive than junk food to audiences eager to unpack some of the issues in post-screening dialogue."
Murphy also will be signing copies of her book, “Scout, Atticus & Boo: A Celebration of 50 Years of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.' ”
Event preview
“Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.' ” Screening at 8 p.m. Book signing at 7 p.m. Jan. 22. $15. Decatur High School, 210 N. McDonough St., Decatur. Decaturdocs.com.
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