ADVERTISEMENTThree years have past since Michael Brown, an unarmed black man was shot dead by a police officer in Ferguson . A powerful new documentary takes viewers to the frontlines of the protests which were the birthplace of the Black Lives Matters movement.
Co-director Sabaah Folayan explains they were frustrated with the way the media covered Ferguson.
“We would see night after night, we’d be in the streets, things would play out one way and we’d turn on the television and see a story that was in direct contradiction from what we experienced so this film is our attempt to try and set the record straight on those nights.”
The film seeks to give a more intimate portrayal of the people caught up in history, and hold the powerful to account.
“It seemed like the media, regardless of the political aisle that they stood on, was really taking the public official story at face value and for us, it seemed common sense to question that story because this is essentially an infrastructure that’s investigating itself. There’s a very clear conflict of interest but we saw time after time the media would take police statements, take the statement from public officials and not really do a lot of deep investigative journalism to find out ‘are these people representing the situation as it’s occurring?”, Folayan explains.
The film which opened in the US on August 11, has already won widespread praise for its boots-on-the-ground approach, giving a voice to the protesters.