Event

SLIFF - Let the Fire Burn

Let the Fire Burn
Jason Osder, U.S., 2013, 88 min.
Saturday, Nov. 23, 4 p.m., Webster U./Moore
On May 13, 1985, a decade-long conflict between the Philadelphia police and MOVE, a radical African-American back-to-nature group, came to an explosive head. After an extensive gunfight, the police commissioner authorized a bomb to be dropped on the MOVE compound, a row house in lower-middle-class West Philadelphia, which ignited a fire that killed all the residents except one little boy and destroyed an entire community. First-time filmmaker Jason Osder boldly constructs this sobering and powerful documentary from existing materials rather than rely on narration or new interviews. Indiewire writes: "There have been many documentaries comprised entirely out of archival footage, but few as powerfully and masterfully structured as this one. Osder creates a visually textured and fascinating piece of storytelling that steers clear of editorialization and manipulation by allowing the content to speak for itself."