Race, religion, death, and football: Put ’em all together and they spell the
word Waco. At least that’s what Don Howard convincingly demonstrates in his
fascinating and very personal documentary about his hometown, Letter From Waco.
Howard’s hour-long film is an impressionistic portrait that blends “found”
footage and new material shot over the course of the last six years in
collaboration with his gifted cinematographer Lee Daniel (Slacker, Before
Sunrise). Throughout the film, Howard crystallizes his lifetime of hometown
perceptions into mini-truths he calls “Wacons” as he shows us the Waco of Elvis
Presley’s Fort Hood R&R getaway days to David Koresh’s back highway
Corvette cruising alleys. It’s all there: the homecoming parades, the racial
integration of football, the Big Red commercials, the old home movies, King
Cotton and the debutante Cotton Queens, the old Indian myths and the new
Southern illusions. The title, Letter From Waco, pays homage to Chris Marker’s
1958 film Letter From Siberia, one of the great send-ups of documentary
conventions and techniques, and provides a glimpse of Howard’s overall
aspirations and role models. Letters From Waco was produced for the Independent
Television Service (ITVS) with funds provided by the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting and will be broadcast on PBS sometime in 1997. (ITVS was created
by Congress with a mandate to “expand the boundaries of public television” and
to provide less commercialized counter-programming and to address traditionally
underserved markets. Some of ITVS’ recent successes include Todd Haynes’ Dotty
Gets Spanked, the Emmy-nominated When Billy Broke His Head, and Beth
Harrington’s SXSW Festival fave The Blinking Madonna and Other Mysteries. For
more info, ITVS’ World Wide Web address is http://www.actwin.com/ITVS) The
weekend’s theatrical screening has the additional bonus of presenting a richer
sound experience than the conventional TV mix will allow. Using the movie’s own
terminology, Letters From Waco is quite the “Wacon” itself. —
Marjorie Baumgarten Letter From Waco screens twice — 7pm & 8:10pm — on Sunday, October 6 at
the Dobie Theatre. Admission is $5.
This article appears in October 4 • 1996 and October 4 • 1996 (Cover).