The FBI and the Klan analysis

Ed Park

2/2/15

            In the American Experience series “The FBI and the Klan,” there are various techniques used to enhance the digital story telling process.  The filmmaker effectively utilizes the old pictures, suspenseful audio tracks, change in the narrator’s tone, and an interview to build suspense to the narrative of the FBI and the Ku Klux Klan.

            The film presents the history of the Ku Klux Klan with old pictures. When the narrator talks about how Ku Klux Klan is consisted of patriots who are against Communism, the film shows pictures of Ku Klux Klan marching, giving visual aid to viewers who do not know much about the KKK and the history of the United States. Furthermore, the picture with an old car and the sign on its trunk goes well with the views against communism and how they thought they had to save the FBI from communism.

            As the story progresses, Dargan Frierson, an FBI agent who kept watch on the local KKK in North Carolina, is introduced with an old picture of him and a suspenseful audio track in the background. The audio track, with a loud base and consistent rhythm, builds just enough fear and curiosity of how the FBI agent risked his life and persuaded powerful members of KKK to become informants.

            The film later introduces George Dorsett, a powerful Klan member whom Frierson convinced to become an informant, with a slower and a lower tone. This change in the tone of narration shows how Dorsett was one of the most popular members of KKK and how dangerous it was for Frierson to make him an informant.

Moreover, the film presents an interview by Frierson’s son. The interviews are in colors, which enhances the history telling part of the narrative where the rest of the pictures are in black and white. The interview supports the flow of the narrative and improves the validity in backing up the success of his father. The overall use of the interviews in between pictures is effective and supports the story well.