4 Little Girls

Spike Lee's first documentary, 4 Little Girls, only increases my already immense respect for him. In 1982, while still an NYU grad student, he planned to make a movie about the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four children and became a defining moment in the civil rights movement. At the time, because he was a nobody, the families of the victims weren't interested in cooperating; incredibly, 15 years later, at a time when he can make pretty much whatever movies he likes, he launched the project again. There's nothing radical or innovative about 4 Little Girls, which features the usual interviews, stock footage, montages of stills, and such, but then innovation isn't required--the film functions as a reminder, and one that seems even more vital today than it did in '82, what with black churches burning to the ground seemingly every other Sunday. Lee being Lee, there are a few bizarre missteps: he pointlessly allows a borderline-senile George Wallace to make a fool of himself on-camera, which adds nothing to our understanding of racism or Wallace and seems motivated entirely by revenge; and also interviews Bill Cosby, for no reason that I can discern except to find out what a Famous Black Entertainer has to say about the tragedy (though the fact that Cosby's son Ennis was recently murdered does lend a certain poignancy, perhaps unintentional, to his brief remarks). It doesn't matter, though, because every time one of the dead girls' relatives appears in the frame, your eyes begin welling up with tears. Whatever Lee's political motivations for making it, in the end this is a film about grief. It's heartbreaking. An Oscar nominee for Best Documentary, this is strongly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (M. D'Angelo)