On Story Episode 1648: The Doctors of Docs

This week’s On Story, we feature three documentary storytellers and their new films. Keith Maitland discusses Tower, about the 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas. Later, Steve Mims on Starving the Beast, which examines the philosophical shift in public higher education and Andrew Shea talks Wrestling Alligators, his film on James Billie and Seminole Indian life before and after the rise of casino gambling.

The new documentary, Tower, examines the mass shooting at the University of Texas on August 1st 1966 from the perspective of the victims, survivors and first responders. The film combines archival footage with rotoscopic animation, interviews, and scripted performances and is based on a Texas Monthly article by Pamela Colloff titled 96 minutes

Starving the Beast is the new documentary from director Steve Mims and producer Bill Banowsky. The film examines the philosophical shift in public higher education through market-based reform, and whether such measures are a solution to the problem of skyrocketing tuition costs, or the systematic elimination of federally mandated public research universities, which have provided affordable education for decades.

Wrestling Alligators, examines the rise of Native American held casinos through the lens of controversial Seminole Indian leader James Billie, who is often called the father of Indian Gaming. James Billie is a one-time alligator wrestler and Grammy-nominated recording artist who opened a first-of-its-kind high-stakes bingo hall in Hollywood Florida in 1972. The success of the gambling operation has spread the practice beyond the Seminole Tribe, forever changing the lives of Native Americans throughout North America.