5/15/2023 0 Comments The best of enemies true story“Ann was a fierce activist who knew how to get things done,” said the writer-director. The documentarian also interviewed Riddick and participant Howard Clement, adding more layers to the portrait.īissell was now officially hooked on this history-making crew and knew he would tell their story someday in a dramatic feature film. and Ann together and their bond was obvious. in his later years, chastened by the fall-out from his shocking charrette vote, but never regretting it. “The item was just three or four lines and left me with so many questions.” Bissell found answers and historical context in Osha Gray Davidson’s book, which primed him for Diane Bloom’s award-winning documentary, An Unlikely Friendship (Filmmakers Library, 2002).īloom’s film featured the real-life C.P. “My first thought was ‘how did that happen!,’” Bissell recalled, referring to C.P.’s transformation. Those few stark facts were Bissell’s introduction to a tense tale that would dominate his imagination for more than a decade. The former Exalted Cyclops had died, and Time marked his passing on the “Milestones” page. His original screenplay was inspired by Osha Gray Davidson’s 1996 non-fiction book The Best of Enemies Race and Redemption in the New South.īissell, who grew up in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was unaware of the charrette or any of its participants until 2005, when he came across a brief item about C.P. The Best Of Enemies marks the screenwriting and directorial debut of Bissell, a producer of award-winning films including Seabiscuit, Pleasantville and The Hunger Games. ever exchanging a civil word was close to unthinkable, but in writer-director Robin Bissell’s The Best Of Enemies, a dramatic feature film inspired by true events, these two bitter rivals are forced to start talking to resolve a crisis in their dangerously divided city. joined the KKK and became their voice as Durham’s Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan. Ellis owned a tiny East Durham gas station just like his millhand dad, and his own four kids. Ann was a single mother and a grass roots activist fighting brazen slumlords, firetrap schools and do-nothing local officials. Ellis were well-known residents of Durham, North Carolina, but certainly not a pair you’d expect to see together.
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