Cropsey (Documentary 2009)
Directors: Barbara Brabcaccio, Joshua Zeman
I was expecting a film about the various urban-legend boogeymen who have haunted kids through late summer nights and around campfires, and indeed, Cropsey the escaped lunatic and child killer of New York ghost stories is referenced here. But this is only prologue to the true story of a child murderer on Staten Island in the 1980s.
Beginning with the disappearance of a13-year-old girl with Down Syndrome, the film recalls the police investigation of the crime, and interviews retired cops and citizen searchers and neighborhood watchers, many of whom are still active in the community.
Some of the scariest footage is a trip through Willowbrook, an abandoned mental hospital which became a refuge for homeless mental patients turned out after the closing. Willowbrook was a disgrace, and the subject of film and TV exposes, notably by Geraldo Rivera, who won a Peabody Award for his work.
NYC was awash in crime and paranoia in those days, and the missing kids just made it worse. The directors have done a better-than-average job putting this together, and have not attempted to keep the sensationalism to a minimum. But, it works here. The alleged perpetrator and his trial are as absorbing as any fictional account could be, and it all really happened.
At the Hollywood Theater
B+
9500 Liberty (Documentary 2009)
Directors: Eric Byler, Annabel Park
A microcosm of the immigration debate in suburban Prince William County, VA. The county council, majority Republican, is influenced by, and partly in cahoots with a Tea Party kind of group led by a blogger named Greg Letiecq. He is practically a poster boy for bigotry, religious fanaticism and nativist right-wing rage. He, and other anti-immigrant activists, try to dominate the council meetings and get their agenda passed, with the connivance of two councilmen. The law would require county cops to stop anyone they see who might be an illegal immigrant.
They are opposed by two Democrats, plus another group of citizens, some Hispanic and some just angry liberals, and at least one outraged former Republican who is disgusted by the effort to pass the resolution. And, yes, there are swing votes on the council as well. The whole thing plays out with YouTube visuals and dueling websites, the modern battleground of the low-level civil war we are in.
Fascinating and instructive about citizen participation used for evil and for good. 9500 Liberty can be seen as a call to arms for the good guys. You know who the good guys are, right?
At Cinema 21
B+