USA – Docudrama – Year: 2013 – Running time: 85 mins
Audience feedback: Rating: (4.31 from 37 responses)
- ‘Excellent’: 14 votes
- ‘Very Good’: 20 votes
- ‘Good’: 1 vote
- ‘Satisfactory’: 1 vote
- ‘Poor’: 0 votes
- + 1 comment without a rating
The purportedly true story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008 before being shot dead by a policeman at the train station after an altercation. While the incident led to local protests and national discussion, this impressive directorial debut pieces together the specifics, the banal facts, of a young man who was no angel but became a lost life that was largely ignored. Winner of the “Grand Jury Prize Sundance 2013” and “Un Certain Regard”, Cannes.
Emotionally wrenching … doesn’t feel like a call-to-arms so much as a call against them.
Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph
Director: Ryan Coogler
CFC Film notes (Judy Warner)
Audience feedback
Fruitvale Station discussion forum
Further reading:
Sight and Sound (Ashley Clark)
Telegraph Film (Tim Robey)
BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant III (Wikipedia)
Theatrical Trailer: