Why did you kill me? Quietly powerful and illuminating account of a drive-by murder.

https://youtu.be/QEXV8Rif8Vc

This was all the more impresssive for not falling into any of the traps and cliches about accidental killings in what are essentially broken communities. The family of the murdered young girl (first her cousin and later here mother) set up a My Space page in the murdered girl’s name to try and smoke out the indivuduals responsible. This was alongside the police investigation and the running of these two situations provided much of the dynamic narrative drive of the piece.

The final outcome, was, to a degree, satisfying but the damage that had been done (and that would continue to be done) was still there. And how many individuals would have the drive to do what they did. It was also very powerful. We saw the gradual revealing of the true nature of the mother -intially a distraught parent, then, gradually, as someone who had used and quite significantly, distributed drugs in the neighbourhood and, finally, as someone who has a better sense of what she has done and ought to do in the future. This powerful personal growth was one of the most interesting and powerful aspects of the film. And the relative brevity (under an hour and a half) added to its effect - but it never felt simplistically rushed.

A fine piece of work, primarily as it did not focus on a case or situation whiuch had received widespread publicity; rather it was just one of many, many such cases, in that neighbourhood and in many others.

The Legend of Cocaine Island: Overly self-conscious 'wild 'n' wacky' documentary about a Florida-based modern-day treasure hunt

Amazon Prime: Marlene Dietrich: Twilight of an Angel. Touching and perceptive French film focusing on the last years of Dietrich's life in Paris