Errol Morris Looks Back At JFK Assassination In Short Film 'November 22, 1963'

Almost exactly fifty years ago as I write this, President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX, and we're still talking about aspects of the shooting decades later. Was there a single shooter, or multiple assassins? Was the killing the action of a loner, or the product of a conspiracy involving the CIA, the Mob, and foreign powers?

Errol Morris has looked into the JFK assassination before, in works like the short The Umbrella Man. For that short he talked to Josiah "Tink" Thompson, a professor-turned-private investigator. He's also a proponent of a three-gunmen theory, as put forth in the book Six Seconds In Dallas, which takes a scientific and evidence-based approach to the theory that multiple shooters acted on that day in Texas.

Now Morris presents more material with Tink, in a short called November 22, 1963, which looks at the various photographic evidence captured that day by ordinary citizens. The Zapruder film is, of course, the spine that connects many other pieces of evidence, but here the two men lay out a path of photographic evidence, and discuss how it effects our understanding of what happened that afternoon. 

The short comes from the New York Times, and there Morris says,

Is there a lesson to be learned? Yes, to never give up trying to uncover the truth. Despite all the difficulties, what happened in Dallas happened in one way rather than another. It may have been hopelessly obscured, but it was not obliterated. Tink still believes in answers, and in this instance, an answer. He is completing a sequel to "Six Seconds" called "Last Second in Dallas." Like its predecessor, this book is clearly reasoned and convincing. Of course, there will be people who will be unmoved by his or any other account. This is a dogfight with too many dogs in the fight. Most people have already staked out their commitment.