Category: Discovery Process Reviews

How Sad, How Lovely: The Disappearance of Connie Converse

How Sad, How Lovely: The Disappearance of Connie Converse

Posted by | Aug 22, 2017 | , |

The Greenwich Village of the 1950s was 185 acres packed dense with the beats, bohemians and artists whose names are now legendary—Cage, Pollock, Motherwell, Kerouac—laying the groundwork for a folk scene that would explode in the coming decade, largely thanks to a young Bob Dylan. But Dylan wasn’t among the first singer-songwriters to flock to the Village. A young woman, fiercely introverted and uniquely talented, named Connie Converse preceded him by more than five years. Connie had been born in New Hampshire in 1924, a time that now may seem improbably far away, though plenty of her contemporaries are...

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Discovery Process: ‘Tales of the Grim Sleeper’

Discovery Process: ‘Tales of the Grim Sleeper’

Posted by | Apr 18, 2017 | , |

Discovery Process is an ongoing series taking a second look at true-crime-related films currently available on streaming services.  Overview: Filmmaker Nick Broomfield travels to South Central Los Angeles to talk to the family, friends, and survivors of the serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper. HBO; 2014; TV-MA; 110 minutes. Hidden in Plain Sight: In one of the many wrenching moments in Nick Broomfield’s 2014 documentary about the crimes of Lonnie Franklin Jr., Enietra Washington recounts the afternoon she accepted a ride from a friendly-seeming man in her neighborhood. Their car had barely turned the corner when, without provocation,...

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Let the Fire Burn is a Sober Look at a Nearly Forgotten Chapter

Let the Fire Burn is a Sober Look at a Nearly Forgotten Chapter

Posted by | Mar 29, 2017 | , |

Overview:  Years of conflict between a communal Black Liberation group, its neighbors, and the city of Philadelphia came to a head with disastrous consequences in 1985. Zeitgeist Films; 2013; NR; 88 minutes. Long-Simmering Conflict: America in the 1970s was a particularly movement-driven time, with the idealism of the 60s giving way to a new righteous pragmatism. Determinism was out, and self-determination, often in the form of conscious and strategic organizing, was in. It was in this context that MOVE was was founded in 1972. Led by the charismatic leader John Africa, MOVE was a separatist collective of largely Black...

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