Visiting Filmmakers Series: Mahrya MacIntire with An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th
Tuesday, March 24, 2026 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT
Johnson Center, Cinema
Two-time Emmy nominee Mahrya MacIntire will present her film, An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th (HBO 2024), on March 24.
An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th looks at the current surge in political violence through the story of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. It is a big-picture statement film that retells the highlights of the case in the larger context of extremist sentiments, evolving from the 1980s to the present. The division and polarization of the past have since spread, deepened, and gone mainstream. The film provides perspectives and historical lessons that might inform our efforts to prevent more civil unrest and domestic terrorism.
An American Bombing: The Road to April 19 is "a trip into the past that’s also a rendezvous with the present and a warning about the future.” (Frank Bruni, The New York Times, April 18, 2024)
“We’re in such a different place in terms of the acceptance of extremism and, in polls at least, the American public’s acceptance that violence can be legitimate in pushing for political change. That inspired us to, say, okay, we’re going to go back and tell this story to a new generation but we’re going to try to put it in this bigger context because it’s more than just a ticktock. It’s more than just a crime story. It has the roots of what we are dealing with now.” (An American Bombing director Marc Levin, in David Smith, "‘More than just a crime story’: the Oklahoma City bombing and a rise in domestic terrorism," The Guardian, Apr 16, 2024)
Mahrya MacIntire's work explores topics related to community (re)building, trauma healing, and neurodivergence, from an embodied perspective. Fascinated with the intersection of visual anthropology, pattern illumination, and creative strategy, she approaches each project as a kinetic historical collage.
Mahrya produced her third feature for HBO in 2024 with An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th, nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy® Award for “Outstanding Historical Documentary” in 2025. She also supervised the archive, which spanned over 50 years of recent history. Executive produced by Katie Couric, the film explores the surge in anti-government ideals and political violence in the 1980s, leading to the Oklahoma City bombing and continuing today.
Our discussion is hosted by Professor Sam Lebovic, an historian of U.S. politics, media, civil liberties, and foreign relations and an expert on the history of the First Amendment. A faculty member in George Mason University's History and Art History and Cultural Studies, Sam is the author of three books as well as numerous articles and book chapters exploring such diverse subjects as press freedom, national security secrecy, media economics, the regulation of passports and visas, educational exchange programs, the Espionage Act, the Beatles, spectator sport, and the politics of fake news. His writing has appeared in leading scholarly journals as well as such places as Dissent, The Boston Review, The Boston Globe, The Columbia Journalism Review, Foreign Policy and Politico.
On March 26, 1:30pm, Mahrya MacIntire will visit a Film and Video Studies class to discuss her work-in-progress, "Muscle Memory," with students.
Seats are limited. Please see more information and register here.
With support from College of Humanities and Social Sciences; College of Visual and Performing Arts; Film and Video Studies; English Department; History and Art History; Screen Cultures, University Life; Center for the Arts, and Women and Gender Studies.
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For more information: contact film@gmu.edu
