Most documentaries follow the the literary formula established by Gay Tálese in print journalism. They set forth a series of facts molded into the kind of story familiar to all of us from fiction. The camera follows a character on a quest for information through a series of events and ends with some kind of emotional pay off.
In this story, the widow of Baltimore police officer Sean Suiter tries to find out who killed her husband. The film begins as Suiter's partner calls 911 to report that he has been shot in the head, and the viewer watches through a body cam as a tape of his partner's panicked voice plays in the background.
What follows is a funeral with honors where Baltimore's finest honors one of its own. He is praised by cops and politicians.
And then we get to the real story. It's likely that Suiter was not only murdered by another cop, but that, he will never have justice. His wife knows it, the filmmaker knows it and, by the end of the movie, so does the audience.
As it turns out, for ever Serpico who becomes a hero at fighting corruption, there are countless Sean Suiters. And the corruption still wins.
Actress and director Sonja Sohn does an excellent job of showing how a high profile murder can go unsolved in a city like Baltimore. She doesn't care about where the viewer wants the story to go, or even what the viewer thinks. She tells the story, shows the human toll, and reminds us that corruption is bottomless.
At times, it's a tough watch, but imagine how tough it is for Sean Suitor's family.
