Crash director discusses racism with poli sci class

When Paul Haggis began to sketch out the first draft of the movie Crash one morning, he didn't think he would tackle the issue of racism.

"Maybe intolerance and fear," explained Haggis, whose film won an Academy Award for Best Picture in March. "But really, I was just fascinated by how strangers affect each other without ever knowing that they affect each other."

In a Monday afternoon conference call from Los Angeles, Haggis spoke about the complexity of race and class relations to a graduate and senior seminar. Throughout the past semester the class, "Race and American Politics," has dealt with a number of complicated and often touchy issues highlighted by the film.

The discussions have become all the more timely after three members of the men's lacrosse team were accused of a March 13 rape, said Paula McClain, the political science professor who teaches the class.

"[Haggis] hit so many things that we've been talking about here," McClain said. "Then the lacrosse allegations intervened, and so it became much more relevant-that this wasn't just what we were reading in class."

Although Haggis said he did not want to answer questions about the alleged incident, he did applaud the efforts of the class to do so.

"You're in a difficult situation down there, but you're addressing it," Haggis said to the class. "What I encourage you to do is talk and be useful. You're going to be ashamed, but out of the truth, will come resolution. So I applaud you."

The class conversation occurred just hours before attorneys for several of the lacrosse players announced that none of the team members' DNA was found on the alleged victim and that they believed their clients should not be charged.

The writer, director and producer said he was inspired to write the screenplay after he and his wife were held at gunpoint and their car was stolen by two men.

"You form a perfect image of who that person is in your mind-he's an asshole," Haggis said. "And you go right and that person goes left, and I asked, 'What happens to that person?'"

After a restless night of sleep, Haggis woke up and began to write the script at 2 a.m., beginning to construct a possible background for the two men.

"We think we know what's going on-we don't know," Haggis said. "We don't know anything until you actually know the given circumstances of someone's life."

Haggis said he then proceeded to connect the story of others.

"I tried to write it not so much as a film but as a series of experiences-in fact I didn't even know if it was a movie when I finished," he said.

As he worked to connect the experiences, Haggis read more than 30 books on the topic of intolerance and class relations. He focused on the times when these topics are magnified by stress and societal pressure.

Crash begins at the breaking point when all these pressures come together, he said to the class.

"We have to ask ourselves what would we do in these moments. Would we act in the moment the way we see ourselves?" Haggis asked.

Although Haggis said the issues of race and class are complicated, he said it is important to question one's own certainty and address problems head on.

"I see the world going straight down the toilet, but I still hope," Haggis said.

"I do know that people surprise you, and that we do embody great contradictions. Every time someone says, 'I know who I am,' they're headed straight for a fall," he added.