2001 – Anatomy of a Hate Crime

CREDITS

Anatomy of a Hate
Crime first aired January 10, 2001 on MTV.  The movie launched
MTV's year-long Fight For Your Rights: 
Take a Stand Against Discrimination campaign.  

In 1999, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson
were convicted of the 1998 kidnapping, beating and subsequent death of 21 year
old gay college student Matthew Shepard.  Instead of focusing on Matthew,
AOAHC focused more on Aaron and Russell by looking at how their lives fell apart
over time and came to have such a tragic effect on Matthew's life.

	Matthew meets Aaron and Russell in a bar for the first time about a year after Aaron and Russell met.  Matthew is in the middle of college exams and uses his passport for and ID, while Aaron and Russell are local boys counting change to buy a pitcher of beer.
	Timing is everything.  Russell has to contend with his worthless mother right after his grandfather's funeral.  An ultimatum is given for her to chose between her son or her boyfriend.  Without hesitation, she chooses the boyfriend.  Aaron happens to be there (selling drugs to the mother's current boyfriend) and they meet.
	Leaving his aunt behind, Russell joins Aaron and his friends.  They go to the local pool hall.  Russell has a job at the "Chicken Shack" and Aaron offers to get him in with his job.
	Aaron flashes a wad of cash and Russell learns that Aaron's mother died during an operation.  The money is from the settlement - not his drug deals.
	Aaron and Russell roofing houses and complaining about the manual labor.  Aaron has just provoked and lost a fight on the job site.
	Russell is introduced to Aaron's circle of acquaintances, including Chasity Pasley who becomes his girlfriend.
	Russell waits outside the bank while Aaron is inside finding out that's he blown all the money he received in the settlement from his mother's death.
	After the bank, it's one last big party...
	Until Aaron's girlfriend blurts out that she is pregnant.
	Flash forward...Aaron and Russell pretend to be gay and offer Matthew a ride home from the bar.
	Russell is questioned by the police about his involvement in the beating.  Matthew is in a coma.