Tower

»Mixing animation, film and verbatim accounts, this bold memorial of the first school massacre in Texas in 1966 is compelling and terribly sad.«

The Guardian

»Maitland puts us on such intimate terms with his subjects that when the faces of the real, aged people burn in over their younger animated counterparts, the effect is unspeakably moving.«

Vulture

August 1, 1966. Just another Monday. A lone sniper climbs the Clock Tower on the University of Texas campus grounds. Pregnant 18-year-old freshman Claire Wilson will be his first target. Her boyfriend and unborn child, his first victims. And 96 minutes after the first shot rings out, when the gunman is finally silenced, 16 will be dead, 3 dozen wounded, and an entire nation left in shock. On the 50th anniversary of America’s first mass school shooting, director Keith Maitland transports us back to the August heat of 1966 and into the crosshairs of a sniper’s lens. Focusing solely on witnesses' accounts, and using animated memories of survivors interwoven with archival footage, he delivers an action-packed and gut-wrenching experience. In this thrilling moment-to-moment reenactment, the untold stories of 7 survivors caught in the crossfire are brought to life and given a voice – a voice that could not be more relevant in times when mass public shootings have become tragically commonplace. Hailed by critics as one of the most important documentaries of the past decade. Keith Maitland is a graduate of the University of Texas. His 7th-grade teacher was one of the survivors of that Monday.

Winner: Documentary Feature 
2016 SXSW Film Festival, SXSW Grand Jury Award

Winner: Outstanding Historical Documentary
2018 Emmy Awards

Winner: 2016 Best Documentary
Austin Film Critics Association, AFCA Award