WPT Previews – Too Many Candles: Milwaukee Gun Violence

May 4, 2016 Erik Ernst Leave a Comment

“We gather with far too many candles …”

Those are words of grief shared at a citywide vigil in Milwaukee for victims of gun violence. As the number of murders in the city has spiked in the past year, community members, police officials and city leaders are trying to answer questions that seem unanswerable as the dreams of more and more young people fall silent to a growing epidemic of homicides in the streets.

In this new documentary, award-winning journalist Frederica Freyberg explores the pain inflicted by the scourge of violence, law enforcement response to the rise in violent crime, and new programs providing hope for a city working to empower communities to reverse systemic forces of poverty, incarceration and crime that are tearing families and neighborhoods apart. In the search for answers, Freyberg interviews community members, public officials, church leaders and members of the families who have been directly affected by gun deaths in the city.

Too Many Candles: Milwaukee Gun Violence premieres 7 p.m. Monday, May 9 on WPT. The documentary will also stream online in full at wpt.org beginning the day of broadcast. The film will air on Milwaukee Public Television 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 14.

Too Many Candles: Milwaukee Gun Violence is part of WPT’s in-depth look at gun violence in America. The conversation will continue regularly on WPT’s weekly news and public affairs program, Here and Now, Friday nights at 7:30.

Two powerful Independent Lens documentaries on WPT May 9 and 10 will also cover national gun violence issues. Each film will be followed by an in-depth on-air town hall discussion:

Independent Lens: Peace Officer
8 p.m. Monday, May 9
Explore the effects of our increasingly militarized policing through the eyes of a former sheriff.

Independent Lens: The Armor of Light
7 p.m. Tuesday, May 10
Follow an Evangelical minister and the mother of a teenage shooting victim who ask, is it possible to be both pro-gun and pro-life?

Program News and Public Affairs Wisconsin Independent Lens Milwaukee video PBS public television Wisconsin Public Television Wisconsin Public Television