The Reconstruction of Asa Carter

2011 American documentary film

David Massachi
Marco Ricci

Music byPete Anderson

Production
companies

G. T. T. Gone to Texas
ITVS

Release date

2011 (2011)

Running time

57 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

The Reconstruction of Asa Carter is a 2011 American documentary film directed by Marco Ricci. It is about Asa Earl Carter (1925–1979), who was a segregationist activist in the Southern United States in the 1950s and 1960s, before he had mainstream success in the 1970s as the supposed Cherokee novelist Forrest Carter, which created a scandal when his real identity was revealed.^[1]

The film consists of archive footage and interviews with Carter's friends and associates, who were often unaware of his multiple careers and personas.^[1]^[2] It was produced by G. T. T. Gone to Texas and ITVS. The runtime is 57 minutes.^[3]

Cynthia Fuchs of PopMatters wrote that the film does not pretend to reveal the true Carter, but treats his elusiveness and contradictory sides as traits in themselves.^[4] In The Journal of American History, James I. Deutsch called the documentary fascinating and wrote that it is based on solid research, successfully showing Carter's different faces.^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Deutsch, James I. (2013). "The Reconstruction of Asa Carter". The Journal of American History. 100 (1): 313–314. doi:10.1093/jahist/jat177.
^ Sobich, Nora (October 13, 2021). "Rassistischer Hochstapler aus Alabama - Das Doppelleben des Asa E. Carter". Deutschlandfunk Kultur (in German). Retrieved December 21, 2023.
^ Briley, Ron (2012). "Review: The Reconstruction of Asa Carter, by Douglas Newman, Laura Browder, Marco Ricci, Michael Fix, and Peter Olsen". The Public Historian. 34 (3): 98–100. doi:10.1525/tph.2012.34.3.98.
^ Fuchs, Cynthia (November 1, 2011). "The Reconstruction of Asa Carter". PopMatters. Retrieved December 21, 2023.