The movie is well-done showing Mumia to be a bright man and excellent writer. The movie excerpts speeches and writings presenting a compelling picture. Speaker after speaker discusses his impact.That said, the movie is unabashedly one-sided. It appears he killed a policeman and an even-handed movie would have provided a section from the policeman's family discussing the devastation to her family. Indeed, in this debate, each side seems to ignore the other. Certainly a family has the right to speak of the devastating loss and to argue a murderer should not be given a platform.Some of the political discussions are one-sided too. No one can or should defend slavery or segregation and it is a blight on our heritage. But one can argue that vigorous law enforcement has made some much better cities for Afro-Americans and whites alike. Is Detroit better today because of lax law enforcement.The Harlem of 2010 after Mayor Guiliani law enforcement platform is better than the Harlem of 1975, with restaurants instead of drug-dens, museums, art galleries, and sundry stores instead of blighted buildings, jobs instead of desperation. White it is not perfect, New York is a far better city than nearby Newark or, probably in part because of vigorous law enforcement.The movie does note the sad increase in prison population, disproportionately impacting black men. How do you create a reasonably safe society, benefiting both Afro-Americans and Whites, without consequences or prisons. The movie is long on creating straw men and talking about problems, less about realistic solutions. Jamal rightly says that with a large 7 digit prison population we need to develop some realistic way of improving their lives instead of just warehousing them. I did not see the movie as providing those realistic solutions.The movie rightly chronicles and condemns the horrors of slavery and segregation. Whether that telling helps and why is a tougher question. Holocaust survivors saw burning of Jewish homes and businesses, starvation, beatings, murder, desecration of bodies. Many went on to be extraordinarily successful and live fulfilling lives. While they could never forget the murder of parents or brothers or sisters, they would put that aside as they lived impactful lives. Jamal teaches the opposite and one can debate how productive that really is. There are differences between the Holocaust survivors and the descendants of slaves principally that the former slave's children endured suffering for generations. But after remembering history, where do we go from here is a legitimate question. With thousands of laws and government programs the seeming suggestion of the movie is that more are needed which can be legitimately debated.The movie makes sense for people to see and is reasonably well-done. it provokes more questions than it answers, raises more problems than it solves, and is as a one-sided as the views on the other side the movie condemns.

Most of what I would say about the great value of this film has been eloquently covered by earlier reviewers. I found that I got far more out of the documentary on the second viewing--the editing is tight, so almost every statement by the commentators gives the viewer/listener something to chew on, and, as a result, one can miss a few succeeding ideas while one is digesting any given idea. I'm confident that the documentary could easily bear a rewarding 3rd and 4th viewing. It's a real feast of stimulating insights, in other words.I think it would be wise for viewers who are completely new to the subject to learn a little about the facts of the case before seeing the documentary. The film's value lies in its focusing on the political factors influencing Mumia's development as an internationally influential revolutionary in the most powerful of all capitalist states. While one does not NEED detailed information on the chain of events leading to his frame-up and incarceration in order to appreciate the film, questions related to his legal situation are bound to arise for the uninitiated. There are fine documentaries and books that address the facts of the trial as argued by the defense and prosecution at length, but it should suffice a complete newcomer just to find a brief chronology of events and summary of political factors before seeing this particular documentary.The film is truly exceptional. Both the activist and the merely curious should embrace its unique contribution to our understanding of the world we live in and the need to resist the oppression that characterizes this epoch in history. Many, many thanks to the makers and producers of this wonderful documentary and, of course, to Mumia and MOVE!

This documentary takes you on a journey with Mumia, the main character, and his love of family, work, people, and what it means to have to struggle as a revolutionary in an open racist society. This story shares a lot about his educational, political and occupational formation, and brings to light an intellectual who takes very seriously his professional career as a journalist. One is able to understand that Mumia never ever gives up even under very repressive and horrendous conditions, and influences you to do the same, which is good. His love for reading, writing and learning is evident in this story. His love for everything that denotes struggling and mass movements organized against the repressive apparatus clearly illuminates his self-determination to press forward with the truth and not to cave into despair and darkness which the system wants to force on him.This documentary stirs the mind and imagination, what is mentally weak is force and repression, and what is mentally strong is depicted as being under extreme surviellance and repression. One can see how the repressive forces in society conspire against unity and ties of solidarity, and how they tear to pieces family ties through organized crime and murder(Manufacturing Guilt). Mumia's thousands of commentaries are recorded and broadcasted by www.prisonradio.org. There, at that website, one can become educated in a quick span of time, and this contribution somehow offsets the gap in the educational infracstructure. This whole documentary is a journey also through the real love of learning and wanting a decent society where everyone is elevated to succeed in a positive way. See this documentary and you will see other living intellectuals who are part of the progressive historical makeup of the United States express their genuine and loving feelings towards Mumia. Of course others in this film express their negative feelings. Overall, this documentary is very revealing of what it is to struggle and support a family, and get treated malevolently and shafted by the power structure all because one is a bright and shining force for people the world over.And one of the top notched journalist and radio broadcaster in the whole universe.

Good and rare documentary of the life of a Black revolutionary and political prisoner. Also, a very good introduction to the situation of Mumia Abu-Jamal for those who aren't very familiar with it. The film traces Abu-Jamal's biography from his early years to becoming conscious of injustices of racist and capitalist society to membership in the Black Panther Party to his later career as a radio journalist (and both radio and print journalist in jail). At the same time the movie doesn't go much into Abu-Jamal's case inasmuch as other movies have already done that. The work is well put-together technically. Is makes creative use of actors and actresses for roles for which there isn't (and can't be) any footage. Some of those roles, however, are over-acted. A number of academics and literary and other 'names' comment on his life and case. However, the film overly relies on this sort of celebrity testimony as opposed to that from voices of the grassroots. Well worth seeing.