This 2017 documentary follows the repercussions of the 2014 murder of an unarmed Black man named Dontre Hamilton by a Milwaukee police officer. Director Erik Ljung profiles the victim’s relatives as they get involved with activist groups committed to ending unnecessary police violence; he also speaks to members of Milwaukee’s police force as the organization attempts to improve from within. (The latter interviewees don’t come off especially well, but Ljung is careful not to paint them as one-dimensional villains.) The movie confronts a number of pertinent issues, not just police violence, but also racism, inner-city poverty, and American society’s treatment of the mentally ill. (Hamilton was schizophrenic, and Ljung explores his case history in moving detail.) In the end all these problems come to seem like facets of the same crisis, which might be summarized as a lack of empathy in the United States for our most vulnerable citizens.
The Blood Is at the Doorstep
1 hour 30 min • 2017
