“Tower,” a documentary recounting the 1966 University of Texas tower shootings, will be shown at 7 p.m. on Nov. 1 and 2 in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Flex Theater. A panel discussion and question-and-answer session will follow the Nov. 1 screening.
Prior to the Nov. 1 screening, clinical psychologist Roger Friedman, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, will read from “Tower Sniper: The Terror of America's First Active Shooter on Campus,” which he co-wrote with Monte and Nathan Akers. Friedman’s reading will take place at 4:30 p.m. at Webster’s Bookstore and Café in downtown State College.
Friedman was personally affected by the tower shooting: his closest childhood friend, Paul Sonntag, was among those shot and killed by the tower sniper.
While “Tower” does revisit the shootings, it dwells primarily on the aftermath for the victims and a shaken nation left trying to understand. Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation, “Tower” reveals the untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting. Variety describes “Tower” as “a uniquely cinematic memorial.”