In 1985, a stand-off between the Philadelphia police force and a small
radical organisation known as MOVE ended in tragedy, with the death of
11 people and 61 houses burnt to the ground. ‘Let the fire burn,’ were
the fateful words that gave the police carte blanche to wait over an
hour before extinguishing the blaze. MOVE, whose members were
predominantly African-Americans, was seen as visionary by some and as a
dangerous cult by others. In his impressive debut feature documentary,
Jason Osder thoroughly examines how the arrest of the group’s members
turned into one of the most devastating days in the history of the city
of Philadelphia. Exclusively using original news broadcasts, home movies
and archive footage of the public hearing enquiry following the events,
Osder captures with immediacy the moral complexity of a 30-year-old
affair that sadly still feels so relevant.
Laure Bonville/bfi.org.uk
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