Whose Streets (2017)

Whose Streets? is an impassioned polemic.

"Whose Streets?" illustrates a generational changing of the guard in the rhetoric and aims of social activism, along with a growing impatience and a reliance on tactics that can seem as naive as they are highly visible.

Folayan and Davis have put together a magnetic look at what it was like to live in that neighborhood, to walk those streets and to experience the eruption that turned everything upside down.

"Whose Streets?" doesn't pretend to solve any problems, only illuminate those that are happening everyday. It's a documentary that lives and breathes in the here and now.

Told from the perspective of activists, artists, and residents, Whose Streets? is a commemoration of and tribute to the humans of Ferguson.

The filmmakers captured the siege from the perspective of the people who lived through it, some calling for a calm, measured response, others committed to direct action and civil disobedience. Many risk their lives to block a highway.

Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis' film is an unflinching account of the ordinary people who found themselves caught up in the fight for justice following [Michael] Brown's death.

There is value to "Whose Streets?" but it suffers from a single minded anger without enough background context.

Disturbing, if a bit repetitive and digressive, Whose Streets? reflects the mood and concerns of a much-abused population...

Its topical relevance is almost startling, yet the effectiveness of this provocative documentary is about more than simple good timing.

It's impossible to not see this response and compare it to the events of this last weekend - candlelit vigils for innocent victims versus tiki torch protests for white supremacy.

"Whose Streets?" leaves you shaken, on the verge of tears, as we're left to wonder what's become of an America that espouses freedom, but more and more works to take our liberties away.