Requiem For The Dead: American Spring 2014 is a new HBO documentary that tells the tales of several individuals who lost their lives to guns in the Spring of 2014. Each day, more than 80 Americans lose their lives due to gun violence — totaling more than 30,000 fatal shooting deaths annually. Requiem For The Dead: American Spring 2014 seeks to tell the true-crime stories of some of the few who died tragically that Spring.
The way directors Shari Cookson and Nick Doob presents these stories to the viewer is drastically different from the way most documentaries approach these very personal stories. Requiem For The Dead included a large portion of social media information gathered on the deceased subjects to create the story.
The following is according to director Shari Cookson.
“This film is stylistically different than any film we’ve ever done, but our point of view as filmmakers is what drove us to go in the direction we did. We wanted the film to revolve around the life and times of our characters… This is a film about life as much as it is about death.”
The directors found it both sad and fascinating how these victims have documented their own lives right up until their deaths. Looking at the crime victims’ social media pages, such as Facebook, shows exactly what the victim were doing or thinking, just minutes or hours before the abrupt end of their lives.
According to NOLA , Nick Doob sheds more light on the process of pulling the documentary together.
“In this film, obviously, our subjects were no longer living. We decided early on that we didn’t want to make a film made up of remembrances — interviewing family and friends, talking-head experts, etc. We also didn’t want to re-create the circumstances of their death, using actors. We didn’t want that quality of looking back. We wanted to make a film that had a kind of present-tense authenticity and felt real. “
HBO viewers will see some graphic and disturbing images as these stories are highlighted. They will also hear the sad details of the way the victims died through new reports, police documents, and when possible, 911 calls.
As HBO’s dedicated viewers tune in to this cutting edge documentary, they will get a sense of the horror of what it is like to lose someone suddenly in the most bizarre ways. Requiem For The Dead will include the death cases of Kyla and Alex Ryng, Tiffany Davenport and Melvin Ray, Lucas, Renotta Jernigan, and Jerel and Mae Worthy.
Requiem For The Dead: American Spring 2014 is a well-crafted documentary that will rip these stories from the headline and weave them into a compassionately human story that will touch the hearts of HBO fans. Don’t miss this riveting documentary. Tune in to HBO tonight at 8 p.m.
Requiem For The Dead: American Spring 2014 trailer and tease:
“A harrowing look back at some of the 8,000-plus men, women and children who were killed by gunfire in America during the spring of 2014.”
[Photo Credit: YouTube]