Let the Fire Burn

Relying on comprehensive archival material, filmmaker Jason Osder's searing documentary Let the Fire Burn recreates a horrific episode in American race-relations history, during which Philadelphia dropped explosives on its own people. On May 13, 1985, during the tenure of the city's first black mayor, Wilson Goode, a long-running series of clashes between authorities and a radical Afro-centric sect called MOVE came to a showdown. Paramilitary-like police (many were veterans of the infamously brutal Frank Rizzo administration), who previously had a deadly 1978 shootout with MOVE members, laid siege to and ultimately bombed the group's Osage Avenue stronghold. The resulting blaze (that City Hall allowed to burn) killed leader John Africa and 10 disciples, including women and children. While MOVE—despite its proclaimed peace-loving philosophy—certainly comes across as nightmarish to its (black) neighbors, the police strike was nonetheless a heinous and ruinous overreaction that brought a lengthy (but sadly unsatisfactory) public hearing. In the inquest footage, a few adult MOVE members who survived the inferno speak with a mix of cult-brainwashed dogma and devastating common-sense zingers, angrily launched against the city's (mostly white) representatives. Ultimately, however, there is a powerful sense of justice not being served. Extras include a director's Q&A, and a 2002 interview with MOVE survivor Michael Ward. A multiple-award winner, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)