Let the Fire Burn

Director Jason Osder crafts the rarest of cinematic objects: a found-footage film that unfurls with the tension of a great thriller. On May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and the Black liberation group MOVE came to a deadly climax. By order of local authorities, police dropped military-grade explosives onto a MOVE-occupied rowhouse. TV cameras captured the conflagration that quickly escalated—resulting in the tragic deaths of eleven people, including five children, and the destruction of 61 homes. It was only later discovered that authorities decided to “let the fire burn.”

Using only archival news coverage and interviews, Osder brings to life one of the most tumultuous and largely forgotten clashes between government and citizens in modern American history.