Interview with Screenwriter/Novelist Bill Steigerwald (30 Days a Black Man)

Matthew Toffolo: What is your screenplay about?

Bill Steigerwald: The true but forgotten story of a daring, pioneering and historic undercover journalism mission into the Jim Crow South of 1948 by two brilliant, accomplished, older men — one a star white newspaperman from Pittsburgh pretending to be black and the other a black political and social leader from Atlanta. Their unique collaboration created a nationally syndicated newspaper series that shocked the white North, pissed off the white South, pleased millions of blacks and started the first national debate in the media (print and radio) over ending Jim Crow legal segregation.

2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?

Nonfiction docudrama buddy movie.

3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?

It’s a great story about America — white and black — set in 1948 in the Jim Crow South, Pittsburgh and New York City. Often shocking and crammed…