Stranger Fruit was extremely well-received in its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. In many ways it provides Michael Brown with his day in court that he was denied by the actions of the authorities in Ferguson, MO. Michael Brown's 2014 was a tragedy and it seems clear that authorities prevented the full truth from coming to light. They dissect the available evidence to show how Officer Darren Wilson likely lied about the shooting to justify his own actions. More importantly they document the institutional racism that likely led County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch to intentionally act in a manner that led the grand jury not to indict Officer Wilson. There is a lot that has been said about these events, but this film provides a highly accessible visual accounting of this controversy. It should be widely viewed, because it is crucial for the public to get a real accounting of these important and controversial historical events.
Many of the details of these remain murky, but this film certainly provides a clearer look at these events than most Americans have seen before. It corrects some of the misinformation that have been spread about Michael Brown. Unfortunately, it is hard to call it a fully objective accounting. The film was clearly made in cooperation with the family and supporters and sometimes allows its rhetoric to exceed its facts. There are sometimes where it appears to exaggerate. It tries to make Michael Brown into a saint instead of an ordinary person. Some of the connections drawn among peripheral players are conspiratorial without real evidence. In one place where they compare statistics, they state that there are over 1100 police killings annually in the U.S. compared to only 14 in China. While the U.S. figure may well be true (and should be unacceptable), it is absurd to accept such a statistic from the authoritarian Chinese authorities as a reliable point of comparison. Their comments in the screenings also present the director more as an agenda-driven advocate than as objective film maker. Again, this is unfortunate, because it makes it more difficult for people to fully believe the film's interpretation. This is an important story that deserves to be told in an objective manner. While Stranger Fruit does add some important detail to the story, Michael Moore- style documentaries that start from the conclusion they want to reach lack the neutrality to fully answer the unanswered questions. Michael Brown deserves to have his tragic story told and this film partly does so, but a better more objective accounting is still needed.
