A haunting documentary

In 1964, 29-year-old Kitty Genovese was murdered right outside her apartment in Queens. As brutal as the act was, it wasn’t the crime that drew the most attention — it was the fact that possibly 38 of the young woman’s neighbors allegedly witnessed the murder, and did nothing about it, and the murder of Kitty Genovese began its movement out of the realm of criminal procedural and into that of parable; a blood-soaked illustration of the apathy of New Yorkers.

But did it really happen that way? In James D. Solomon’s revealing and at times heartbreaking documentary The Witness, Kitty’s brother William sets out to learn the truth about that fateful night. Yet The Witness is not interested in true crime trappings — after all, the murder itself isn’t really a mystery. The killer was apprehended, and the details the film reveals about the man — Winston Moseley — and his crimes are particularly heinous and chilling. What The Witness is really focused on, however, is Kitty’s brother William, and the cruelty of crushing, unrelenting grief: http://www.cutprintfilm.com/reviews/the-witness/