Lone Star Hate

10:15 p.m. Saturday, July 10 , 1999, Caravan of Dreams theater

The "banality of evil" is one of the subjects of this documentary from Britain's Channel Four on the gruesome 1993 gay-bashing murder of Nicholas West in the conservative east Texas town of Tyler. The story unfolds in graphic detail, through forensic photographs, visits to the crime scene, courtroom and police interrogation transcripts, death-row interviews with the killers and conversations with West's friends in the gay community.

Director Paul Yule turns an unflinching outsider's eye on some absurdly grotesque features of Bible Belt culture, noting the ways that culture fosters a climate of anti-gay violence.

What's striking about this documentary, however, is that despite the bigoted rants of some of the film's interviewees, Yule goes to great pains to unveil the sense of common decency and respect for the law that compelled public servants in this conservative city to seek justice on behalf of the victim of a heinous hate crime. Rated R. UK, 1997, 76 min., color.

Director: Paul Yule; Producer: Jonathan Stack

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