Murder On A Sunday Morning
The Age
Thursday May 11, 2006
DVD & VIDEO REVIEW: Murder on a Sunday Morning, Hopscotch, 111 mins,, PG,documentary, 2001 ***?
French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (The Staircase) went to the US to make this Oscar-winning documentary about a Florida murder trial in 2000, in which a black teenager was charged with shooting an elderly woman. The police had a confession, and a positive identification from the victim's husband, who was beside her when she was shot. But the public defender's office was convinced that the boy was innocent. De Lestrade follows the lawyers as they do their painstaking research and preparation, and takes his cameras into the courtroom for the trial. This is an engrossing piece of filmmaking that raises questions about the American justice system and its operations. The extras contain some strong material and throw some interesting light on the case.DVD extras include: deleted scenes; interviews; filmmaker's statement.
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