Mentorn Media has been commissioned to produce a one-hour documentary on the Colorado cinema shootings for BBC Three, it was announced today.
The Batman Shootings is the first documentary on the gun massacre in the USA. Presenter Amal Fashanu travels to Aurora, Colorado, and speaks to survivors including Jansen Young who lived because her boyfriend shielded her from bullets. Amal also discovers how the gunman tried to join a local rifle club in the weeks before the shootings.
Speaking to young Americans, Amal hears what they say about the rights to own a gun, which is protected by the US Constitution, and finds out whether they think the State of Colorado should pass the death penalty on the gunman, James Holmes, who identified himself to police as The Joker.
Amal said: “I attended the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Leicester Square and it was incredible that just days later, I was heading to the USA to the place where 12 people died because they were watching the same movie.”
Executive Producer, Steve Anderson, said: “Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora – and even this weekend the shootings at the Sikh Temple in Milwaukee in which seven people were killed – the list of gun massacres in the USA grows ever longer. America is mainly split on the issue of gun controls – this film concentrates on what young people there think should happen now.”
Zai Bennett, Controller, BBC Three, said: “America’s gun laws are firmly back on the political agenda after the tragic shootings in Aurora, so it’s right that on BBC Three we have commissioned the Batman Shootings; an in-depth current affairs documentary from Mentorn which is being produced at incredible speed in response to the tragedy.”
Commissioned by Fiona Campbell for BBC News and Current Affairs, the programme transmits on August 23 on BBC Three. The Producer/Director is Mark Gregory and Jim Booth is the Co-producer.
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