Collaboraction Theatre, which makes social change its mission, has created a powerful film based on the 1955 Mississippi murder of Chicago’s Emmett Till and the subsequent trial of two men who committed the crime. (J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant were acquitted of the murder by an all-white male jury. They later confessed to committing the kidnapping and murder.)
Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till began as a stage presentation and then was produced as a film. It’s now been recognized by the American Bar Association and has been nominated for one of its Silver Gavel awards—with a surprising competitor.
Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till was created in 2022 in partnership with award-winning NBC5 Chicago anchor Marion Brooks. The production was possible because the long-missing transcript of the 1955 trial was unearthed in 2004 and released publicly by the FBI. Two Collaboraction company members—G. Riley Mills and Willie Round—were commissioned to adapt the 354-page trial transcript into a 90-page immersive theatrical reenactment.
All of the action and dialogue in the resulting script is drawn from the trial transcript; the trial reenactment concludes with a moving monologue based on interviews with Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Bradley (played by Kayla Franklin). Collaboraction artistic director Anthony Moseley and company member Dana Anderson co-directed the original teleplay.
Trial In The Delta was performed as a staged reading at the DuSable Black History Museum & Education Center in February 2022. Shortly after that, the adaptation was filmed at NBC Studios as a part of Marion Brooks' documentary, "The Lost Story of Emmett Till: Trial In The Delta," which went on to win a Midwest/Regional Emmy. The NBC5 documentary is streaming on Peacock and can also be viewed on the station’s website.
In February 2023, the production was expanded and more fully mounted for a two-week run at the DuSable Black History Museum & Education Center. The final performance and conversation with the audience was professionally filmed in 4K. The new two-hour film version includes behind-the-scenes footage, live stage performances, and reactions from audience members.
Collaboraction’s Trial in the Delta has been screened several times, such as at the DuSable Museum and most recently, in a private showing at Society for the Arts. Collaboraction is making the film available for screenings by schools and organizations. Email info@collaboraction.org for information about sponsorship and bookings.
The film also came to the attention of the American Bar Association and is one of two finalists for the documentary category of the 2024 Silver Gavel Award. Notably, its competitor for this award is Martin Scorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, a legal docudrama based on the 2017 book by David Grann about a series of murders of women members of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma.
“We are thrilled to share this honor with our fellow finalists Martin Scorsese, Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio and their team at Apple Original Films,” said Collaboraction artistic director Anthony Moseley. “Excavating and adapting the once-missing Emmett Till trial transcript into a live theater production gave Collaboraction the honor and responsibility to share it as broadly and as often as possible, whether that be through live performance, online streaming, or now, our newly released film version of the final live performance.”
The American Bar Association announced 29 finalists for the 2024 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts in a variety of categories on March 20. The awards recognize outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system, and are the ABA’s highest honor in recognition of this purpose. Winners will be announced on May 22. Awards will be presented on August 3 at the ABA annual meeting in Chicago.
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