Home of the Brave (2004 film)

A white housewife and a mother of five children, Viola Liuzzo felt called to action by the words of Martin Luther King Jr., and she left her Michigan home to work in Alabama with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1965. While she was serving as a volunteer during the historic Selma to Montgomery marches, Liuzzo was shot dead by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The film is a historical account of her life which is presented in the form of a montage which consists of archival footage, narrated by the actress Stockard Channing and it is laced with extensive interviews by Liuzzo's family members and contemporaries.{{Cite news |last=Gates |first=Anita |date=October 27, 2004 |title=A Slain Civil Rights Worker and Her Mournful Legacy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/movies/27brav.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=August 5, 2014 }}

Home of the Brave was written, directed, and co-produced by Paola di Florio. The 75-minute film was released by Emerging Pictures in late 2004.

Home of the Brave was nominated for the 2004 IDA Award by the International Documentary Association,{{Cite web |url=http://www.documentary.org/magazine/2004-ida-distinguished-documentary-achievement-awards-nominees |title=IDA 2004 Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards: Nominees |author=Staff |year=2004 |publisher=International Documentary Association |work=Documentary.org |access-date=August 5, 2014 }} and was selected for competition at that year's Sundance Festival.{{Cite web |url=http://history.sundance.org/films/3021/home_of_the_brave |title=2004 Archive: Home of the Brave |author=Weyermann, Diane |year=2004 |publisher=Sundance Institute |work=Sundance.org |access-date=August 5, 2014 }}

It was nominated for Best Documentary Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America in 2005,{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2005/film/awards/wga-serves-up-1st-doc-kudo-to-super-1117918019/|title=WGA serves up 1st doc kudo to 'Super'|last=McNary|first=Dave|date=15 February 2005|website=Variety|access-date=18 February 2019}} and was one of the films featured at the first annual Traverse City Film Festival in 2005.

The New York Times praised di Florio's "poignant documentary" for depicting "the freshly outraging story of Liuzzo's death and of her difficult legacy to her children." Although the film highlighted familiar footage of marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and of demonstrators in Birmingham being attacked with fire hoses, the Times said that it "distinguishes itself with touching film of Jim Liuzzo and his children being interviewed and of political leaders of the day."{{Cite news|last=Gates|first=Anita|date=2004-10-27|title=A Slain Civil Rights Worker and Her Mournful Legacy (Published 2004)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/movies/a-slain-civil-rights-worker-and-her-mournful-legacy.html|access-date=2020-12-24|issn=0362-4331}}

• Civil rights movement in popular culture

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0389009}}
• [http://www.revcom.us/a/119/home-brave-liuzzo-en.html DVD Review: Home of the Brave, The Defiant Spirit of Viola Liuzzo], Revolution, February 10, 2008

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Category:2004 films

Category:American documentary films

Category:Documentary films about the civil rights movement

Category:Selma, Alabama

Category:Documentary films about crime in the United States

Category:Selma to Montgomery marches

Category:Documentary films about Alabama

Category:2000s English-language films

Category:2000s American films

Category:Documentary films about women

Category:English-language documentary films