A scene from "Journey To A Hate Free Millennium"

October 11, 1999
Web posted at: 11:51 p.m. EDT (0351 GMT)

In this story: Film draws on Columbine shootings Shepard's mother 'feared for him on a daily basis' Former racist works with Weisenthal Center RELATED STORIES, SITES

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- A movie that makes its debut in Colorado on Wednesday was inspired by several infamous murder cases, but the filmmaker hopes his work will prevent similar killings in the future.

"Journey To a Hate Free Millennium" was scheduled to debut in Fort Collins on the first anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who died at a hospital in the town after he was beaten into a coma on the Wyoming prairie.

His mother helped make the short film on hate crimes in the United States.

"I loved him very much and I think about him constantly," Judy Shepard said of her 21-year-old son.

Hate also took the life of James Byrd, Jr., a 49-year-old black man, kidnapped, beaten and dragged to death behind a pickup truck by white men in Texas.

Film draws on Columbine shootings

Byrd had been an enthusiastic musician. "My brother never took a piano lesson. He played everything by ear," recalls his sister, Clara Taylor, in the film.

Then there was the bloody assault at Columbine High School last April when two students went on a shooting rampage, killing 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives.

"Where does a 17-year-old mind come up with this plan? Where does that start?" asks "Touched by an Angel" actor John Dye in the film.

Filmmaker Brent Scarpo has focused on all three tragedies in the making of his documentary, but he said his motivation came from dragging death of Byrd.

"It's not a gay thing. It's not an Afro-American thing. It's not a Jewish thing. It's not even a Caucasian thing -- It's a hate thing," said Scarpo.

"And as soon as we, as a society, recognize that, then we can collectively come together and dialogue about the subject, called hate, and how is it that we can enter the new millennium without it."

Shepard's mother 'feared for him on a daily basis'

Shepard, whose childhood photos are shown in the movie, was beaten to death in Wyoming because he was gay, according to prosecutors.

"I feared for him on a daily basis. Every time the phone rang it was like, 'Oh God, please let Matt be okay," Judy Shepard recalled. "It's very, very scary because it's such a violent society now ... and that prejudice is out there whether we want to admit it or not."

Byrd's sister believes race was the motivating factor in his killing.

"I think he was chosen at random because he was a black man," she says in the film.

Contemporaries of the two shooters at Columbine High School said fellow students had sometimes taunted them because they were "different."

Scarpo said his film isn't about entertainment -- it's about education.

"Ignorance leads to fear -- fear leads to anger -- anger leads to hate -- and all that hate causes is suffering," explained the film's producer and director.

Adding to the power of Scarpo's film is T.J. Leyden, who for 15 years hated anyone who wasn't white, because he was a neo-Nazi.

Former racist works with Weisenthal Center

"I've been out of the group for almost four years. But I still, from time to time, have racist thoughts that come to mind. That's why I still talk with professional psychologists, talk with friends," said Leyden.

"These are things I'm probably gonna have to do the rest of my life. You can't shut off 15 years of racism like a water faucet," he explained.

Ironically, Leyden now works for the Simon Weisenthal Center for Holocaust studies in Los Angeles. He gives speeches about hate.

Scarpo said if Leyden could change -- anyone can. And the filmmaker believes racism is learned.

"A kid doesn't come out of the womb hating the world," said Scarpo. "But on the other hand a child doesn't come out of the womb loving the world either. You can teach a child how to hate, but you also got to teach a child how to love."

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