Kickstart Your Weekend With 'There Will Be No Stay'
By Monica Riese, December 6, 2013, 5:01pm, Picture in Picture
We've written an astonishing amount about the death penalty.
Between Rick Perry's records and Texas' shoddy record for respecting scientific evidence, we've tried to share some of the stories of the inmates on Texas' death row.
But there's a side to those stories we all hear less often: that of the executioners charged with ending these men and women's lives.
There Will Be No Stay, a documentary by writer/director Patty Ann Dillon sets out to change that.
As you can imagine, making a movie about a process that no one ever talks about is a bit of a struggle considering, well, no one wants to talk about it. The identities of executioners are rarely publicly disclosed, and sadly often only become known after they have committed suicide, an act that is too common in this line of duty. Many false starts and closed doors later, Patty eventually found two men who were willing to invite her into their deeply private lives and go on the record about how they became executioners, what the job is truly like, and how it changed their lives forever.
The project's Kickstarter campaign currently has 91 backers, but with almost $25,000 to go to reach its goal by Dec. 11, it could use your help. Take a look at the pitch video and trailer below – a rare look at the men on the other side of the needle.
Kickstart Your Weekend is a series intended to showcase Texas film and tech projects that are crowdfunding their way to a goal, be it distribution, a prototype, or production costs. If you have a project that we should know about, email us at filmflam@austinchronicle.com.
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