When I saw this film for the first time my eyes nearly popped out of my head. Here's a town that in the 1990s still had a street named "Nigger Creek Road". Some time around 1919 all the black men were taken from their homes by a white mob and shipped out on trains. Corbin remained an entirely white community from that day forward. This film tears aside the defensive walls of the current residents, to expose the seething racism that still exists in Corbin.
The most significant point of the film for me was not the expose of a small town, but the truth that if a place like Corbin can exist and thrive in this country, it must be only one example of a much broader problem. Racism in the United States is still pervasive. And like the citizens of Corbin, we rationalize, we deny, we lie to ourselves in order to avoid the awful truth: that we live in a racially divided and divisive country still. That is the true point of this film, and one that it makes very well.
The film also does not neglect to point out that there is still hope. Some of the younger interviewees (though not all) are able to acknowledge the situation and look at it openly. And clearly the filmmakers themselves are also attempting to address the issue. We need more films like this, more attempts like this throughout our society. It's too easy for people to point to events that happened long ago and say, "oh, no one feels that way now. We have advanced so far today." We need more films to expose not only that this is mere wishful thinking, but also the inherent racism that must exist in the person making a statement like that in today's world. We need films that show us who we are today, just as "Trouble Behind" shows the citizens of Corbin who they are; to force us to consider important issues that we may not only not want to consider, but may have constructed elaborate self-deceits to protect us from considering.
The most significant point of the film for me was not the expose of a small town, but the truth that if a place like Corbin can exist and thrive in this country, it must be only one example of a much broader problem. Racism in the United States is still pervasive. And like the citizens of Corbin, we rationalize, we deny, we lie to ourselves in order to avoid the awful truth: that we live in a racially divided and divisive country still. That is the true point of this film, and one that it makes very well.
The film also does not neglect to point out that there is still hope. Some of the younger interviewees (though not all) are able to acknowledge the situation and look at it openly. And clearly the filmmakers themselves are also attempting to address the issue. We need more films like this, more attempts like this throughout our society. It's too easy for people to point to events that happened long ago and say, "oh, no one feels that way now. We have advanced so far today." We need more films to expose not only that this is mere wishful thinking, but also the inherent racism that must exist in the person making a statement like that in today's world. We need films that show us who we are today, just as "Trouble Behind" shows the citizens of Corbin who they are; to force us to consider important issues that we may not only not want to consider, but may have constructed elaborate self-deceits to protect us from considering.
