纽约——被美国与邦联纪念碑的争议关系所困扰，“每日秀”团队成员CJ·亨特看到了他认为可以制作一部有趣的短片的潜力。
但在项目开始后不久，他意识到一个更大的故事正在浮出水面，它变成了《中立地带》，这是一部长篇纪录片，于周六在翠贝卡电影节首映，将于7月5日在PBS电视台播出。
这部严肃但有趣的纪录片审视了《失败的事业》，这场运动在内战后将邦联神话化，并继续讲述这场冲突更多的是关于自由而不是拥有奴隶的权利。
亨特最近在宣传这部电影的采访中告诉美联社，“你不能说出另一场失败者获得成千上万纪念碑的战争”。
亨特说，南方分离文件清楚地把奴隶制放在首位，作为分裂的原因。但是内战结束后，这部电影指出，一场成功的宣传运动将事业从拥有人民财产转向了国家权利和爱国主义。
不愿真正阅读关于历史事件的原始文献使这一神话永久化，“可悲的是，我们对历史的想法实际上就像是流传给我们的故事，”他说。
这一想法促使亨特深入研究，以理解那些认为纪念碑应该被拆除的人和那些希望它们保留下来以保护历史的人之间的分歧。
这部电影的概念始于2015年，当时亨特住在新奥尔良。市议会投票决定从公共场所拆除四座纪念碑，但遭到了阻挠，因为工作人员感到他们的生命受到了威胁。
他说，经过一个夏天的抗议和社会正义的动荡，这一势头在去年发生了变化，并且“有一个强烈的共识，在公共空间挑战这些纪念碑”。
在加入《特雷弗·诺亚每日秀》的演员阵容之前，亨特说他看了像小罗伊·伍德这样的记者，学习如何在幽默和信息之间取得平衡。
“这份文件充满了CJ的好奇心和固有的乐观主义，”伍德说，他是这部电影的执行制片人。"他做得很好，让故事变得沉重，同时又时而轻松有趣。"
在其中一个片段中，亨特展示了一尊黑色雕像的特殊位置网球弗吉尼亚州里士满纪念碑大道上的偶像阿瑟·阿什，这是一条纪念那些为邦联而战的人的长街。
这部电影对出于“包容”的目的而在奴隶主中加入阿什的想法提出了质疑。
亨特说:“我们不会通过增加一块背景牌或在附近增加一名黑人网球运动员来让邦联变得更好。”。“这些都不好。这些都没有道理。”
去年，在内乱后，纪念碑大道上的四座雕像被移走，其中包括邦联领导人杰斐逊·戴维斯的一座雕像。
“我明白奴隶制的事情，但这也是叛国。我们甚至必须构造这样一个句子的想法是邦联荒谬的一部分，对吗?就像你甚至不应该说，‘看，我知道这个60英尺高的雕像是给一个奴役人民的人的，但他也背叛了美国。’你不应该需要那个组合。其中一件事应该会让你失去资格，”亨特说。
他指出，直到1月6日美国国会大厦遭到暴力袭击，神话和未能谴责叛国行为继续困扰着这个国家。
“因为我们当时没有处理那件事，现在很难称起义军为现在的起义军。我认为这部电影试图让这种联系变得清晰，”亨特说。
当谈到如何处理雕像和纪念馆时，解决方案就有点复杂了。亨特和伍德都不认为这些残留物应该被销毁。但是他们同意他们应该远离公众视线。伍德支持将它们转移到博物馆或私人设施的特殊区域，这样那些有联系的人就可以保存他们的历史。
“雕像是一个很好的起点，但我不认为这是为了抹去人们珍视的任何东西。伍德说:“这是为了保留我的权利，每天当我骑过这条街的时候，我都不想看到它。
Documentary examines troubled past with Confederate statues
NEW YORK -- Perplexed by America’s controversial relationship with Confederate monuments, “The Daily Show” team member CJ Hunt saw potential for what he thought would make an interesting short film.
But not long after beginning the project, he realized a much bigger story was revealing itself and it became “The Neutral Ground,” a feature-length documentary that premiered Saturday at the Tribeca Film Festival and will available July 5 on PBS.
The serious, yet funny, documentary examines the Lost Cause, the campaign that mythicized the Confederacy after the Civil War and continues the narrative that the conflict was more about freedom than the right to own slaves.
“You can’t name another war where the losers get thousands of monuments,” Hunt recently told The Associated Press in an interview promoting the film.
Hunt said Southern secession documents clearly put slavery first as the reason for the division. But after the Civil War, the film points out that a successful propaganda campaign shifted the cause from being about owning people as property to state’s rights and patriotism.
A reluctance to actually read primary source documents about historical events perpetuates the myth, “Sadly, our idea of history is really just like stories that were handed to us,” he said.
That notion drove Hunt to delve deeper to understand the division between those that believe monuments should be removed, and others that want them to stay to preserve history.
The concept for the film began in 2015 when Hunt was living in New Orleans. The city council voted to remove four monuments from public spaces but was thwarted because work crews felt their lives threatened.
The momentum shifted last year after a summer of protests and unrest over social justice, and there was “a strong consensus to challenge these monuments in public spaces,” he said.
Before joining the cast of “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” Hunt said he watched correspondents like Roy Wood Jr. to learn how to report on a segment with the right balance of humor and information.
“Peppered within this doc is CJ’s curiosity and inherent optimism," said Wood, who serves as executive producer on the film. "He did a great job allowing the story to be heavy, while being light and funny at times.”
In one segment, Hunt shows the peculiar placement of a statue of Blacktennisicon Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, a strip commemorating those who fought for the Confederacy.
The film questions the notion of adding Ashe among the slaveholders for “inclusion” purposes.
“We’re not going to make the Confederacy better by adding a contextual plaque or by adding a Black tennis player nearby,” Hunt said. “None of these are good. None of these makes sense.”
Last year four statues were removed from Monument Avenue, including one of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, after civil unrest.
“I understand the slavery thing, but also this was treason. The idea that we even have to construct a sentence like that is part of the absurdity of the Confederacy, right? It’s like you shouldn’t even have to say, ‘Look, I know this 60-foot-tall statue is to a man who enslaved people, but also, he betrayed the U.S.’ You shouldn’t need that combo. One of those things should disqualify you,” Hunt said.
He notes that the myths and failure to condemn traitorous actions continue to haunt the nation, right up to the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Because we didn’t deal with that then, it is now difficult to call insurrectionists now insurrectionists. And I think the film tries to make that connection clear,” Hunt said.
When it comes to what to do about the statues and memorials, the solution is a bit more complicated. Neither Hunt nor Wood believes these remnants should be destroyed. But they agree they should be out of public view. Wood supports the idea of moving them to special areas in museums or private facilities, so those that have a connection can preserve their history.
“The statues are a great place to start, but I don’t think it’s about erasing anything that people hold dear. It’s about reserving my right to not want to see that every damn day when I’m riding past this particular street,” Wood said.
