Texas is a place that is often misunderstood by those outside it. Its proud reputation and blood-red state politics can make folks write it off. Thankfully, the new docuseries God Save Texas lets Texan filmmakers take the reins and add nuance, too.
Based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Lawrence Wright, the three-part series world-premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival in advance of a Feb. 27 debut on HBO.
In the feature-length first episode, “Hometown Prison” (87 min.), longtime Austin-based director Richard Linklater returns to his hometown of Huntsville to take a closer look at the impacts of the prison industrial complex. He interviews old friends from high school who ended up working in one of the seven prisons surrounding Huntsville, and examines the moral decay around the death penalty and the way Huntsville has changed since he grew up there. Whether returning to his childhood home or sharing his mother’s impact on his life and perspective on criminal justice, Linklater dives headfirst into the material. This insertion of the filmmaker into the narrative is an important thread throughout all of God Save Texas.
Director Alex Stapleton returns to her hometown of Houston to explore the impact of the oil business in the installment “The Price of Oil” (54 min.). Throughout the episode, Stapleton examines and seeks to correct the erasure of Black Texans from the state’s history by charting out her family’s history and unfurling the layers of issues caused by the oil and gas industry, specifically in the Houston neighborhood of Pleasantville. Initially developed as a suburban neighborhood for Black middle-class families, Pleasantville was subsequently impacted by environmental racism and lack of zoning laws. Because of this, industrial refineries and plants popped up around the community, causing higher rates of illness (including cancer and asthma) and directly impacting Stapleton’s family, which has lived there for generations. The result is a devastating, personal portrait of the human cost of a resource we all rely on.
In “La Frontera” (55 min.), director Iliana Sosa probes her hometown of El Paso and the complications of the border, taking a poignant approach to a topic that often gets boiled down to talking points. For this critic, who was born and raised on the border as well, it’s an installment that hits close to home. Sosa’s explanation of the border as a state of nepantla – meaning “in-between-ness” – is well done, laying bare the border as a unique and fluid third space for the people who live there. “La Frontera” also fills gaps in Texas’ history, touching on the indignities Mexican immigrants faced when entering the border. These included undergoing “cleansing” techniques that sanctioned the use of Zyklon B, a poison that is infamous for its use in the Holocaust. Overall, Sosa is able to thread a line through history to underscore that the border is much more than a hotbed of debate, but a real place with folks who continue to persevere under untenable circumstances.
Throughout God Save Texas, the personal and political are deeply intertwined. It’s an effective approach, providing an engaging way for folks, especially those outside the Lone Star State with their own biases, to lean in to all the complexities of Texas. This is powerful documentary filmmaking that may help others understand what makes Texas such an interesting, fraught place to call home.
This article appears in January 26 • 2024.