For the record, Pam Reichart thinks slavery was bad, just like pretty much every American who doesn’t attend meetings that require white hoods.

But she also doesn’t think every rehashing of Civil War history needs to be a melodrama pitting the heroic North against the abhorrent South. The war, she says, is much more complex than that.

And that’s the point of “Bad Blood,” a documentary Reichart is co-producing for KCPT in Kansas City, Mo., that examines the violent years of Border War between Missouri and Kansas.

“We’re definitely trying not to lionize or demonize either side,” Reichart says. “That’s not to say slavery was right by any means. Slavery was not good, but it was a fact of life back then. Trying to see that through 21st-century eyes is difficult.”

The full-length documentary has been in production since spring and is tentatively due to be broadcast nationally in March 2007. Reichart will be in Lawrence to discuss the project at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Watkins Community Museum of History, 1047 Mass., as part of Civil War on the Western Frontier events.

She knows that even though the Border War is 150 years in the past, people on both sides of the state line still take it personally.

“I feel like no matter what we do,” she says, “we’ll be burned in effigy from both sides.”

Different documentary

Unlike many documentaries featuring “talking head” historians giving their perspective on the war, plans call for “Bad Blood” to include more narration and much more dramatic re-enactment.

So far, the crew has shot on the Missouri side, though a shoot in Linn County is approaching this fall.

The idea for the documentary came to Reichart and co-producer Angee Simmons after working on another documentary in which they learned about the pro-slavery history of Lecompton.

They started thinking about the stories that don’t get told as often – the ones from people with perspectives other than the slavery-fighting Kansan or the slave-holding Missourian.

The documentary will be more of an examination of people’s lives and their thoughts on the conflicts and issues, as related through letters and other documents from the day.

“We were trying to do something different,” Simmons says. “It’s not your typical Ken Burns documentary. Hopefully, people will get captivated by its drama. We’re trying to show more of the story, instead of ‘this many people died at this battle.’ We want to put more emotion to it.”

Scar tissue

At the same time, they know there is plenty of emotion lingering from the days of the Border War. The producers already have received phone calls and e-mails from future viewers, telling them the “right” way to tell the story.

Reichart and Simmons say much of Civil War history is viewed through abolitionist eyes. They’re trying to find a middle ground.

“While we’re not softening the Missouri side,” Simmons says, “we’re not glorifying the Kansas side, either.”

Jonathan Earle, an associate professor of history at Kansas University, agrees that many Civil War documentaries do vilify those on the Southern side.

“I do think since the anti-slavery side was proven so fundamentally right, and the pro-slavery side was proven so fundamentally wrong, we do look at it through abolitionist eyes,” Earle says.

He says it’s interesting to examine arguments other than those simply for and against slavery. Those include the Southern argument of states’ rights.

“If you are from the South, and I would include Missouri in that, you have a lot to be proud of in culture and heritage,” Earle says. “But much of the time, when you hear about Southern heritage, it’s from guys who are sulking to their Klan meeting. They’re not talking about grits and NASCAR. It’s all wrapped up in white supremacy.”

Many sides

“Bad Blood” director Shane Seley agrees that the Border War was much more complex than just Kansas vs. Missouri.

His company, Wide Awake Films in Kansas City, Mo., has been shooting documentaries and re-enactments for about seven years.

“The problem with the whole Civil War era in general is it wasn’t black and white,” Seley says. “It’s very complex. When you look at the Confederate Army, less than 3 percent of the men who fought in the Confederate Army owned slaves.”

He often hears from people who think something his company filmed had a slant to it.

“That happens quite often,” he says. “I’m always at one point taken aback, but I’m into the subject so much, I find it refreshing. It’s so alive for someone, and that’s cool. It wasn’t a long time ago – it’s only been 150 years. That’s a drop in the bucket when you look at time.”

A remaining challenge, in addition to telling the story fairly, is how to burn down Lawrence in the film, as it was in real life by Sheriff Sam Jones in 1856. Seley says he’s looking for farmers who have outbuildings they’re looking to knock down, and may build faux buildings to topple.

Reichart says “Bad Blood” will be shown on public television stations nationally and will be released on DVD. She’s hoping the national exposure will explain the Border War in a fair light – one that’s not tainted by emotion.

“We don’t want to paint anyone as the bad guy,” she says, “but we don’t necessarily want to paint anyone as the good guy, either.”