ABOUT THE PROJECT

LOGLINE
Forty-three years after the largely forgotten shooting at Murchison Junior High School in Austin, Texas the survivors share their experiences and journeys toward healing.

SYNOPSIS
THE AUSTIN SCHOOL SHOOTING tells the story of the teacher Rod Grayson who was shot to death on the morning of May 18, 1978 at Murchison Junior High School in Austin, Texas. The shooter was Mr. Grayson’s most gifted and talented student thirteen-year-old John Christian. After the shooting John was taken and questioned by the Austin Police along with his fellow students as witnesses.

John’s father was George Christian, a Texas State lobbyist and former Press Secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson. George held long established relationships with politicians, defense attorneys, judges and doctors that helped create an atmosphere of silence in the days, months and years that followed John’s juvenile detention and release to a private Dallas, Texas psychiatric center for the shooting.

That same tragic morning Producer Chris Hilsabeck was in his 7th grade classroom in another part of the school. He did not hear the gun shots that rang out in Mr. Grayson’s classroom, but the memory of that day is still with him.

THE AUSTIN SCHOOL SHOOTING documentary feature film will weave the story of that tragic day in May through interviews with the students who directly witnessed the shooting, and the teachers who were present. Their interviews will recreate what happened and what went wrong as they continue to struggle with closure to this unimaginable but all too common American tragedy.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Stephen Purvis
PRODUCER Chris Hilsabeck, Stephen Purvis

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