At the Sundance film festival 2015, 3 1/2 Minute, a documentary about racial tension and gun culture was previewed. Marc Silver’s timely documentary went back to the year of 2012, when the case of Jordan Davis had occurred to talk about racial bias and gun violence. John Davis, was a 17 year old teenage kid when he was shot in Florida by Michael Dunn, after Dunn asked Davis to turn down the volume of the music in his car.
Silver approached his documentary by listening to the testimonies of the people who were at the scene themselves, of Davis’s parents, and friends and so on to hear about their personal thoughts and witnesses. Jordan Davis was one of them. During a phone call that was made with Dunn while he was in jail, Dunn said, “It’s 100% on Jordan. He made this happen. Maybe he would have killed someone if it hadn’t been me.” By looking at how Dunn feels guilty after committing such crime, it emphasizes the importance of raising awareness of racial bias and gun violence.
Ever since the incident, Davis’s parents made much effort to call for stricter gun control laws in the wake of their son’s death, and Silver’s documentary would also serve as a powerful tool for them to fight against senseless violence.