{"id":863,"date":"2009-03-18T13:03:35","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T18:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homepages.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2009\/03\/18\/new-film-highlights-role-of-baylor-law-alum-prof-in-fighting-small-town-injustice\/"},"modified":"2009-03-18T13:03:35","modified_gmt":"2009-03-18T18:03:35","slug":"new-film-highlights-role-of-baylor-law-alum-prof-in-fighting-small-town-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2009\/03\/new-film-highlights-role-of-baylor-law-alum-prof-in-fighting-small-town-injustice\/","title":{"rendered":"New film highlights role of Baylor Law alum, prof in fighting small-town injustice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AmericanAs a Baylor student from Houston, I often drove through the small town of Hearne<\/a> (population 4,690) headed to and from home along Highway 6. About the only thing I knew about Hearne was that it had two convenient pit stops, a Sonic and a Dairy Queen (like most Texas small towns).<\/p>\n

But like most small towns, Hearne also has its stories. One of those stories — which prominently features a Baylor Law School alumnus and his professor<\/a> — had made its way to the big screen under the title “American Violet<\/a>.” Short plot summary: A young black mother of four is arrested on false allegations that name her as a drug dealer; she refuses to plead guilty and instead fights the charges.<\/p>\n

In the real-life version of the story, the ACLU lawyers who picked up the case asked Baylor Law professor Mark Osler for help handling a small-town Texas trial. Osler recommended a recent Baylor Law graduate, David Moore, to work the case. In the movie, Osler (fictionalized as “Joe Fischer”) plays a small role, but the part based on Moore (“Sam Conroy”) is a central character throughout the movie.<\/p>\n

The film was screened in Hearne last night and will be shown tonight at 7:30 at Baylor’s Mayborn Museum<\/a> (admission is free). The audience will include Osler, Moore, and the actor playing the part based on Moore, Will Patton<\/a>. (You might recognize Patton from his role as an assistant coach in “Remember the Titans.”)<\/p>\n

“American Violet<\/a>” was screened at the Telluride Film Festival last summer and the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin earlier this month; it will enjoy a limited release nationwide beginning in April. Click here for the movie trailer<\/a>; for more on the film and the story behind it, read more on Osler’s blog<\/a> or this piece<\/a> from the Waco Tribune-Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sic \u2019em, alumni who make a difference!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a Baylor student from Houston, I often drove through the small town of Hearne (population 4,690) headed to and from home along Highway 6. About the only thing I knew about Hearne was that it had two convenient pit stops, a Sonic and a Dairy Queen (like most Texas small towns). But like most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,10,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-extraordinary-stories","category-just-for-fun","category-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}