Banned documentary stirs tensions in Ferguson, hits Video on Demand

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Oct. 20, 2014 - PRLog -- Los Angeles, CA - A new and racially-charged documentary was banned from St. Louis theaters in September due to fears of rioting in the aftermath of the shooting of Mike Brown. The film chronicles the racial change of the suburbs surrounding Ferguson, Missouri and has been labeled, “The most controversial documentary of the year.”

Located only five miles from Ferguson, the site of rioting which has drawn international attention, is Spanish Lake, a small suburban community which forms the focus of the new film Spanish Lake. In an enthusiastic review, Village Voice called the groundbreaking film “revelatory and urgently relevant.”

In May, director Phillip Andrew Morton and producer Matt Jordan Smith were invited by the Federal Government to screen the film in Washington D.C. Spanish Lake attracted their attention due to its assertions that government policies helped steer African-Americans from the city into the northern suburbs of St. Louis. Three months later, the shooting of Mike Brown brought a media firestorm to the region.

“We’ve interviewed several high level politicians for the film and that triggered the federal government interest”, says Morton. “now after Mike Brown, the film has everyone on edge.”

U.S. Census Bureau statistics reveal an 80% decline of white residents in Spanish Lake since 1990, a phenomenon known as “white flight”. The community was decimated by unscrupulous real estate firms, who conspired in scaring many white families into selling their houses. Those houses were then marked up and sold to African-American families for a profit.

The candid and uncensored talk of race by those interviewed in the film is bold and unsettling. “I don’t have a problem with black people, it’s just niggers,” says a man in the trailer for the film. Emotions of the residents run high, yet the film remains unbiased in its execution.

Wehrenberg Theatres was scheduled to program Spanish Lake in September but then cancelled the screenings due to fear of race rioting after the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson. Producer Matt Jordan Smith says, “No other theater chain was brave enough to program it, so we’ve decided to release it via the internet.”

Spanish Lake will be available on ITunes and other Video on Demand services beginning on October 20.

THE CONTROVERSIAL TRAILER HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF8bTkx0opU