While previously familiar with the story thanks to The Dollop podcast episode on ‘John Africa’, the leader and creator of MOVE, one of the main sources of information for the podcast would have no doubt been this documentary, Let The Fire Burn (2013). The focus of the film is on a small organisation called MOVE, who were known in Philadelphia throughout the 1970s and 1980s as a predominately black, fringe commune that was decidedly anti-government. Growing tensions between MOVE, the Philadelphia police department, and the Philadelphia neighbourhood MOVE had settled into (MOVE threatened neighbours, broadcast loud announcements, and built a bunker on their roof) led to a destructive siege by the Philadelphia police in 1985 that claimed the lives of MOVE members including children and destroyed an entire city block in the process. Director Jason Osder’s masterstroke is tell the story through archival footage from news reports, earlier documentaries, and the framing device of one child survivor’s recorded deposition intercut with a committee’s investigation into the tragic events. The result is that the film captures the anger and sadness within the wake of the city’s mishandling of the entire situation, especially the Mayor, the Fire Department, and especially the Philadelphia cops who were still resolutely vengeful over an officer slain in a previous skirmish with MOVE (who was more than likely accidentally shot by fellow officers). Seeing the news footage of a building burning down as a police tactic to destroy the rooftop bunker or to hear the inter-departmental bullying of one white officer who saved a black life is soul-crushing stuff. An engrossing watch yet an ultimately depressing experience, indicting police power thrown around without care or concern for black lives or the living environment of a community. Recommended. Available to stream on SBS On Demand, Kanopy and for the month of June, for free on KinoNow.
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