The Witness

2015
7| 1h26m| en
Details

A brother's journey to unravel the truth about the mythic death and little known life of Kitty Genovese, who was reportedly murdered in front of 38 witnesses and has become the face of urban apathy.

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Five More Minutes Productions

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Reviews

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
agursas The Witness, seeks to explore the truth behind Kitty Genovese's murder. Despite the public story, the truth of the matter is widely unknown. As Bill Genovese, brother of Catherine "kitty" Genovese, searches for truth, he uncovers shocking details that the original New York Times failed to mention. Images of the scene, numerous interviews, and a powerful reenactment in the exact locations of the attacks painted a clearer picture of what occurred that night. Already familiar with the case, this film answered many of my questions, but managed to leave some lingering. For instance, what goes through a sociopath's head like Moseley? This emotional work was phenomenal at portraying Kitty as a vivacious human being versus a character in a tragic story. The most exceptional thing about this film was its ability to convey such strong emotions and show the importance of journalism and its influence in this case. Highly recommend.
Paul Allaer "The Witness" (2015 release; 88 min.) is a documentary about the life and death of New Yorker Kitty Genovese. As the movie opens, we learn how Kitty was brutally murdered in Kew Gardens, a densely populated area of Queens and, as the New York Times then reported, how 38 witnesses watched and did nothing. Now 50 years later, Kitty's brother Bill is still bothered by many aspects of the whole thing. "The end hasn't been reached yet", he murmurs as he decides to get to the bottom of this. At that moment we're not even 10 min. into the documentary but to tell you more of how it plays out would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to watch it for yourself.Couple of comments: this documentary is directed by James Solomon, but is really driven by Bill Genovese, whose investigation we follow on screen (and who co-produced the movie). The most puzzling aspect of the entire story is how the famed NYT got this story so wrong, I mean, their reporting has holes the size of Manhattan in it! Bill also takes the opportunity to look back at Kitty, not just her death, but also her life, in which we get a couple of interesting surprises as well. All that, plus a look back at the 50s and early 60s era, make for interesting viewing, and then some.I happen to catch this on a recent trans-Atlantic flight, and it certainly helped the time move along. If you like crime documentaries, you could to a lot worse than this.
joshautrey The Witness documents Bill Genovese's attempt to understand the circumstances surrounding the murder of his sister, Kitty Genovese. Those familiar with the murder by Winston Moseley and the subsequent explosion of media coverage were most likely the intended audience. With this documentary, Bill sets out to find the truth about what happened on the night of March 13th, 1964, and the alleged thirty-eight witnesses who did nothing. Before watching this movie, I was aware of the true events as well as the sensationalism that followed, and I expected to see the "urban apathy" angle on the events discussed and refuted which was included. My favorite sections of the film were the parts that were stylistic, gray scale, and animated, and where silhouettes of the witnesses looking down on the first attack voiced their recollections of the events unfolding. I also enjoyed the tense interaction between Bill and Winston Moseley's son in which both sides are victims of circumstance. However, I did not like the reenactment where Bill has a woman scream loudly on the same street where Kitty was attacked. It seemed like a cheap way to evoke an emotional response from the viewers and further played into Bill's obsession with the murder. Overall, I enjoyed this documentary, but I was let down by the seemingly intentional lack of conclusion. I would recommend this to anyone curious about the true events and the aftermath of the murder of Kitty Genovese.
Riley Moore "The Witness", directed by James Solomon, gave the audience an inside perspective into Bill's journey to find answers to his sister's, Kitty Genovese, premature death. I can remember learning about Kitty Genovese and the 38 who witnesses in high school psychology. After watching Bill look for answers about his sister's death, it showed me that the things that I learned in high school were not all completely true and that most the witnesses were just ear witnesses and that they did not actually see the murder. With the murder happening so long ago, Bill was not able to get all the answers that he wanted but he did say that "this story taught us more about Kitty than we would have ever known. "The key aspect of the film making that I found the most interesting are the interviews with the witnesses that Bill was able to talk to. They gave him closure and information that countered the famous New York Times article and without their stories Bill wouldn't have had any information to compare to the news articles. "The Witness" does a very good job at getting the audience emotionally involved, showing the audience the truth behind the 38 witnesses, and showing us Kitty's life before the murder.