Until 1990, the oak-lined historic district of Wilmington, North Carolina, was ensconced within thousands of square miles of wetlands feeding the Cape Fear River.  The completion of Interstate 40, in 1990, beckoned a stream of visitors and developers that brought change to the region that has outpaced the infrastructure, over two decades later.  Attitudes towards race, religion, economics, and social norms that had not been directly confronted by external realities since Reconstruction, would soon be challenged by the sheer volume of vehicles entering the city, with their human cargo.  Near the sprawling State Port of the Cape Fear, the Park View Grill overlooked the spillway of Greenfield Lake, as it had for decades, with a fresh look, and a different clientele.

On February 22, 1990, long haul truck driver Ronald Thomas found his way to the Park View Grill, where he drank beer and shot pool with the owner, her partner, and a 32-year-old woman named Talana Kreeger. Twelve hours later, at a truck stop on Interstate 95, Thomas spoke to a local minister by phone, as he confessed a murder. The true horror of Talana Kreeger's death would gradually unfold to her friends, who gathered at the Park View for the grim news that no one could be prepared for. The quiet coastal community of Wilmington learned the gruesome details through media coverage that revealed how Talana had been manually disemboweled by her attacker, and left to bleed to death at the edge of a tree-lined field. While hinting at the importance of "homosexuality" as a factor in the murder, news reports did not confirm the sexual orientation of the victim, or its possible relevance to the crime, leaving the public to speculate about why this had occurred.

In the previous decade, this community had witnessed a seemingly continual string of violent crimes that were motivated by intolerance towards LGBT people. Not coincidentally, the mood of the nation had become immersed in conservative rhetoric that gave credence to the homophobic rants of public figures like Anita Bryant. The murder of Talana Kreeger shattered the tenuous sense of security that had existed at the Park View, further alienating a minority population who were already isolated in their families and their community. Media coverage was replete with excruciating details of the crime, while only marginally describing the victim, who remained "a body found in the woods".

The friends of Talana Kreeger were frustrated in their attempts to locate a church that was willing to host her funeral, in light of the publicity surrounding her murder. A scheduled memorial service had been cancelled at the last minute, when the church became aware that the deceased was lesbian, requiring a hurried relocation. Two years later, in 1992, several of these mourners were among the founding members of St. Jude's Metropolitan Community Church, part of a Christian denomination that affirms the humanity and spirituality of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and straight people. In the words of one of these early leaders, "We wanted to have a place where we could marry you and bury you."

The Park View Project challenges the viewer to question the language of hate in our culture, and to consider the human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, opening a window into the grief and healing of vulnerable communities ravaged by hate crimes, typically overlooked by the media, even as the country celebrates the historic achievement of marriage equality.

Talana’s death brings about questions of identity and community…as expressed by one of the film’s subjects, “What is a lesbian community anyway?”

The “anyway” suggests that the subject doubts the viability…or even the existence of a true sense of community. One can speculate about the consequences, when groups of women and men are assigned a subculture with which they may or may not have anything else in common, based solely on sexual orientation. We would like to explore what a lesbian or gay community is and, in turn, examine what it means to be part of any community that is targeted by hate crime.

We observe that the murder of Talana Kreeger interrupted the fundamental process that sustains a healthy community…that of communication.  The brutality and violence associated with the crime created a domino effect: panic became fear became isolation became a breakdown of community. LGBT men and women, already marginalized, fragmented into more divisions – young, old, closeted, out, single, partnered…tragically isolated from each other.  This film will examine the alienation that results from historical trauma, and question its inevitability.

However, the message of Park View is not directed primarily to the “gay community,” or any other subdivision of our society.  This film seeks a consciousness-raising among the uninformed majority of Americans, who, we believe, are increasingly willing to affirm the safety and basic human rights of their relatives, co-workers, and neighbors who are members of LGBT communities.

Obviously, Park View will address political issues that are relevant to this case…most importantly, the reality that North Carolina is still one of a minority of states that does not recognize sexual orientation as a determining factor in the definition of a “hate crime,” even as the NC General Assembly struggles to defend its politically-motivated, regressive legislation, HB2 (the “Bathroom Bill”).

Park View has been in development for over ten years, with contributions from filmmakers, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, media representatives, elected officials, student interns, and...most importantly...the men and women who lived this story and continue to believe in the need to tell it. 

Entirely self-funded to date, this effort to explore the meaning of Talana Kreeger's life and death, and to make it visible to a larger audience, has always felt like a story that must be told...and would be in its own time.  While the risks of delay in completing a dauntingly powerful project such as this are not insignificant...loss of source material, unavailability of subjects, dissipation of interest...it appears that the urgency of LGTB human rights is advancing, not diminishing the relevance of this story.

The stark responsibility inherent in documenting a tragedy like the hate crime that took the life of Talana Kreeger has guided this production's respect for the risks and rewards that are shared by the community of people in Wilmington, North Carolina who knew and loved her...and continue to suffer the trauma of her murder.  Though the development of the Park View Project has certainly reopened old wounds, the deliberate and sensitive approach of this production has affirmed the potential for healing among those closest to the story, as it endeavors to inform and inspire the ascension of LGTB human rights worldwide.

Collaboration with Associate Producer Stephen Sprinkle has opened new possibilities for a more meaningful telling of the story of Talana Kreeger, documented in his groundbreaking book Unfinished Lives. Steve's moving narration will make Park View accessible to a much broader audience, as the production invokes universal themes that will resonate nationally as a web or cable series that will give new voice to the trauma of a community typically overlooked by media.

The original soundtrack for Park View by Wilmington-based singer/songwriter Laura McLean captures the poignant grittiness of this story, in a manner that is true to its Southern coastal setting.  With her solo career in performance and event promotion, and her work in musical education for at-risk youth through DREAMS of Wilmington, Laura has been a strong voice for creativity and community service on the Cape Fear Coast for decades, touring solo and with her band, New Riders of Calamity..