POV Season 32 Episode 4 Bisbee '17

Bisbee '17 is the 4th episode of the 32nd season of the acclaimed PBS documentary series POV. Directed by Robert Greene, the film tells the story of a shocking incident that took place in Bisbee, Arizona on July 12, 1917 - the forced deportation of over 1,000 striking copper miners, many of them immigrants, by the town's sheriff and his deputies. The event resulted in the tragic separation of families, and left an indelible mark on the town's history.

In the present day, as Bisbee prepares to mark the centennial of the event with a reenactment, a group of residents grapple with how to honor and reckon with this dark chapter in their community's past. Greene employs a unique mix of documentary and fiction filmmaking techniques to explore this complex issue. The film follows several participants in the reenactment - some of whom are descendants of both the deporters and the deportees - as they grapple with their own personal histories and the legacy of the deportation.

There's local historian Richard Shelton, who's spent years researching the deportation and is now advocating for a memorial to the deported. There's also a group of townspeople, many of them artists, who are putting on the reenactment, and who insist that they're doing so not to glorify the past, but to help Bisbee heal. Most of them have personal ties to the event in some way - from the actress hired to play an Irish immigrant caught up in the deportation, to the man playing his own great-grandfather, who was a member of the posse that rounded up the miners.

As the reenactment approaches, tensions in town rise. Some residents, including some descendants of the deporters, publicly denounce the event as insensitive, citing the trauma that their own families suffered as a result of the deportation. Others argue that it's time to confront the past, even if it's painful. There's a sense throughout the film that the reenactment is not just a performance, but a kind of ritual, an attempt to exorcise the ghosts of the past.

Bisbee '17 is a haunting and thought-provoking film, one that tackles questions of memory, trauma, and responsibility head-on. At a time when communities across the United States are grappling with how to confront their own difficult histories - from Confederate statues to Native American boarding schools - it's a timely and important exploration of the power of collective memory and the need for reconciliation. The film ultimately offers no simple answers, but its exploration of the complex histories and emotions of the people of Bisbee is illuminating and deeply moving.