The Man on the Grassy Knoll

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Dallas director, Stan Hart is undertaking the cinematic challenge of bringing John Crawley’s novel, The Man on the Grassy Knoll, to life in a thirty-minute short by the same name. 

There have been countless theories about the assassination of President John Kennedy in Dallas on November 22nd 1963. Hart now introduces us to Raul Domingo Salazar, who has a different story. Told in a series of taped interviews with Salazar who sits in prison, waiting sentencing on a drug hit, the viewer is taken back to the streets of Dallas on that fateful day. But well before that terrible act in Dealy Plaza, we are all transported further back to the recruitment of Raul in Mexico by the CIA and his subsequent training and landing with Castro rebels in Cuba.

“The book tells the story of the fictitious second shooter in Kennedy’s assassination in transcript format. That is great for literature, but hard on the camera. To bring that to life in video is quite an undertaking. Crawley delivered us a marvelous screenplay that adds dimension and excitement to an already shocking story. Putting it through the lens is a marvelous exercise,” said Hart, a thirty-five year veteran of the Dallas film and video scene. “We all know how the story ends. It is how it gets started that The Man on the Grassy Knoll tackles.”

Hart explains his motivation, “I’ve always wanted to do a historic film. I’ve always wanted to do a fiction piece. With The Man on the Grassy Knoll, I get both worlds colliding head-on. It is a director’s dream come true.” The project is currently in pre-production; filming to begin before the holidays. “Our hope is to have it ready for the spring video festivals and especially for airing here in Dallas by summer since this coming year will be the 50^th anniversary of the assassination on the streets of downtown Dallas.”

“I’ve known Stan for a number of years now,” said Crawley in a recent interview. “His view of this script is nothing short of amazing. The detail we get into is phenomenal. Things I took for granted in the writing of the book, have to be gone over in minute detail for the film. Stan peruses this with a focus like I’ve never seen before.” When asked about the staging of a historic novel such as this, Crawley says, “We are approaching the project as if it were totally real history.” 

Hart concured, “Even though it is fiction, we want the viewer to believe Raul was there and the story he is telling could very well have happened.”

Was there a second shooter?  Look for The Man on the Grassy Knoll and maybe you can find out.