West of Memphis
If you are not familiar with the case of the West Memphis Three, Amy Berg's thorough documentary (produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh) gets you up to speed. Three young boys, Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers, were found dead in a ditch in West Memphis, Arkansas on May 5, 1993. The circumstances of their deaths seemed to suggest some sort of satanic ritual, or so authorities thought. They arrested three teenagers, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jesse Misskelley, Jr., and eventually put them in jail for 17 years. The film presents much of the information shared in the three prior Paradise Lost films, with new emphasis on another stepfather and his possible involvement in the murders. If I have a bone to pick with these documentaries, it's that they point fingers at other suspects with little to no evidence to back their claims. (John Mark Byers, a stepfather to one of the murdered boys, was accused in the second Paradise Lost film; Terry Hobbs, another stepfather, is scrutinized in this film). The three prisoners have been released, but the actual killer still walks free. That's a travesty, and the state of Arkansas should be ashamed of itself.