The film focuses on the unusual friendship between Jimmie Lee Kirkpatrick and Hugh “De” Kirkpatrick. The showing will be accompanied by a panel discussion that includes its director/producer and community members who work on racial justice.

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Race, football, education

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“A Binding Truth” tells their story. The two were high school classmates in Charlotte, North Carolina in the 1960s — during a time of deep racial strife for the nation.

Jimmie, who is Black, was a standout high school football player but — despite having a high school football career that was among the best in North Carolina during those years — was not chosen for the state’s 1965 all-star team, what many coaches and observers at the time considered a racist snub.

Julius Chambers — a renowned civil rights attorney at the time — represented Jimmie and filed a class action lawsuit alleging he was discriminated against, on the basis of his race, when he was passed over during selection. Through 1965 no black players had ever been named to the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas, which is meant to feature the highest caliber high school senior football players from the two states.

Jimmie eventually won his civil rights case, but the decision came too late to change the all-star game roster that year.

The Shrine Bowl saw its first racially integrated roster in 1966. Jimmie would go on to play football at Purdue University. Injury and continued discrimination were among the factors that caused Jimmie to drop out of college.

He moved to Oregon, where, after working as a lumberjack and living on communes, eventually returned to the classroom. He completed a master’s degree in teaching and worked in education as a high school administrator for 25 years, according to an interview he gave in 2017.

While not close with each other in high school, De, who is white, was moved by Jimmie’s discrimination and pursuit of justice. The case enraged white segregationists in Charlotte at the time, who responded with death threats and a range of physically violent acts, including several bomb explosions.

De wrote about that in his college application essay. He attended Harvard College, eventually earning a doctoral degree in psychology, which he practiced for 37 years, according to his website.

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Friends through trauma

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The two crossed paths again in 2014. Jimmie, after researching his ancestry, discovered that De’s ancestors were slavemasters who had owned his ancestors. He reached out. The two began talking. They became friends, a connection that could have become stymied by anger or guilt over what was — for both men — a deeply painful historical connection.

“A Binding Truth” tells their stories and explores a friendship that blossomed against the odds. The film was directed and produced by Louise Woehrle. The Minnesota-based filmmaker is making her fourth appearance at the Lake Placid Film Festival, where she has twice won “Best Documentary” for some of her past work.

Woehrle said her drive as a filmmaker comes from wanting to “shine a light” on stories that help people to learn from each other and, as a result, produce actionable social change for the better.

She said that too often, people are hesitant to discuss racial justice because of a sense of shame surrounding its history.

“We can have this tendency to ask ourselves ‘Isn’t this behind us now? Can’t we just move on?'” she said Sunday.

Woehrle said that while she understands where this feeling comes from, the country’s soul cannot fully heal unless people come to terms with — rather than disregard — a racial history that is painful and troubling, but is so fundamental to the nation’s story, and how it impacts who we are today.

“After seeing this film, I’m amazed and really gratified by how open people are to sharing their own feelings about their own biases or lack of understanding,” she said.

Woehrle gave an example of a Black church congregation and a white church congregation screening the films and having workshops, then coming together with each other to discuss what they learned.

“The conversation is safer and less charged. People are listening to each other,” she said.

Woehrle said she took care in producing the documentary to make sure it did not come off to audiences as trying to preach or force an ideology upon them. Grace, forgiveness and goodwill are all key to this learning, she said, adding that just as Jimmie and De became unlikely friends, she has seen the same as audiences come together.

“It’s bringing communities together,” she said.

Woehrle said she was most proud of the film’s ability to translate ideas into action.

“The vision I had for it was that this story would have an impact on people in a way that they would receive it and be moved by it,” she said. “Something we said making the film is ‘We want maximum impact.'”

“A Binding Truth” is being screened at a number of film festivals this year and is supposed to be broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service stations throughout the nation next year, according to Woehrle.

She added that people interested in watching and learning from the film as part of an educational, faith-based or civic group don’t have to wait until it is fully released in 2025. She said they can reach out to her on her company’s website, whirlygigproductions.com, to receive access.