Tower

Mass shootings of American civilians have become an unfortunate fixture on our TV news bulletins, but that wasn't always the case. If this traumatic trend had a start point, arguably it is 1 August 1966, when a sniper ensconced in the clock tower of the University of Texas in Austin randomly killed 16 people and injured many others. As one cop at the scene said: "Something was happening I ain't ever seen before." Director Keith Maitland's enthralling documentary brilliantly captures the shock of that fateful summer's day with an immersive blend of rotoscope animation, archive footage and survivor testimony. This unique melding of the real and the unreal probably shouldn't work, but the animated reconstructions are agonisingly intimate. The experience of one pregnant student, lying wounded next to her dead lover in the searing midday sun while the killer continued a rampage lasting 96 minutes (the same length as the movie), is harrowing enough on its own. But with recollections from other victims, bystanders and policemen seamlessly included, it proves to be an insightful, intense and intensely moving experience.