Whose Streets?

This film will of course hurt many people who think they're not racist but. I have seen it a few years ago in Sheffield doc fest and learned a lot about BLM from it. I am here today because of what happened to George Floyd and to urge people to watch it and share it and do their part in educating others, feel empathy for the oppressed and be aware of the privilege not to be one.

With the recent #blackout tuesday taking social media by storm, I too feel the need to reflect and revisit crucial moments of unrest in recent history.

I grew up in suburban Missouri. I had a few good friends who were half-black, but I largely lived in an insulated, middle class environment where racial tensions were out of sight and mind.

My appreciation for hip hop, Jazz, James Baldwin, Dave Chapelle, and Ta-Nehisi Coates has brought me baby steps closer to appreciating black culture over the years. But there is still a lot of fetishization on my part.

Overall, my laziness has kept race on the outskirts of understanding. And perhaps it should always be at the outskirts of understanding - me being a white man who will never truly understand the struggle of the African American in a America that doesn't give our black neighbors the time of day.

I have learned to treat racial understanding like Zen. The impossibility of understanding means the process is both the journey and the endpoint. The moment I begin to think that I "understand" is the moment I get lazy again.

Rewatching this movie, and being reminded of what happened right down the street from me in Ferguson, has given me a momentary respite from laziness. And I hope watching Whose Streets will give you the same chance for reflection.

The people who gave this movie a bad review for the reasons they provided need to read a history book. I am not even American and I know that this kind of stuff is not pushing an agenda of any kind. It's continuing a centuries long struggle that unfortunately seems to have no end.

This documentary was emotional and powerful and told the story from a point of view many of us cannot possibly understand because we have not lived it. The only problem I have with this movie is that it doesn't contain more information from the people involved. I wanted even more interviews and more footage.

"A riot is the language of the unheard." chapter heading

Having never participated in a protest, much less a riot, I felt I had done both after experiencing directors Sabaah Folay and Damon Davis's Whose Streets? Their documentary about Ferguson, Missouri, and the death of Mike Brown in 2014 is an unremittingly real and passionate participant point of view that celebrates the will of an oppressed people to be heard.

Whose Streets? documents the thoughts and actions of the largely black population as they experience the white-cop brutality of Ferguson and St. Louis police forces, culminating in Mike Brown's being shot 8 times by an officer who justifies the assassination with his fear. The grand jury believed he was faultless, leading to disbelief and riots reminiscent of the reaction to Rodney King's killers' exoneration.

The doc is especially effective bringing home the pain with portraits of such sufferers as Brittany Ferrell, a comely and articulate young lesbian who is not afraid to speak her outrage. We see her at home with her children and on the street with the microphone chanting the will to fight to be free, an anthem echoed by virtually everyone facing down the daunting police and national guard forces.

The street's-eye view happens largely because cell phones recorded the abuse with a probing expertise heretofore only the province of professional filmmakers. But not today, when those little devices are adjuncts to the spirit of justice, albeit not always enough to bring convictions. David Whitt, a Copwatch citizen videographer, meticulously records and publishes images that damn the militaristic response, for the film's expert doc makers put them together to devastatingly powerful effect.

Although white cop Darren Wilson, 28, had Brown in his sights after Brown allegedly robbed a convenience store, Brown should not have died for the crime nor should his body have lain in the street for hours while the community and security reacted. However, most of the forensic evidence and testimony proved that Wilson acted in self defense.

If there can be a criticism of this doc, it would be that the evidence finally exonerating Wilson is not presented; he remains guilty in the spirit of the film if not the reality. Although the filmmakers could claim an interest only in the people's plight and reactions, full disclosure for me requires that I also see where the police can be at least partially exonerated.

Justice both civil and spiritual is elusive. Whose Streets? is an estimable rendition of a disadvantaged populace struggling to be heard.

I have to say that the director has to take the blame for using this opportunity to put together a poor documentary. There was no backstory on Michael Brown, well not a Knouff! Also a lot of video camcorder phone footage was used that was pointless. There was no investigative investigative journalism and the story wasn't linked together properly. For those who don't know anything about Michael Brown this story would be confusing it seems it was just made for the people of Ferguson who were aware of the story anyway. Really poor effort and missed opportunity by Sabaah The Director. Shame because it should have been a powerful story.