Hacker Cinema
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
1996 · Film · documentary · 150 min
Directed by Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
A horrific triple child murder leads to an indictment and trial of three nonconformist boys based on questionable evidence.
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6 comments on Hacker News
I've seen two documentaries that really have stuck with me. One is Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (watched in multiple long parts from memory); the other is Icarus.
Yea, the 80s were full of crazy people in government and everywhere. I remember when D&D was honestly considered being a gateway to satanism / Devil worship, and not in jest. And not a short two week news cycle thing, but it went on for years. Oh, and heavy metal too. It all finally started to wind down when the televangelists were exposed as money grubbing perverts.
Paradise Lost took place in that era. If you haven't seen the movies, they're disturbing but good.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three
You millennials think you have it bad, the boomers were absolutely batshit crazy to GenXers (we were also considered lazy BTW).
My three favorite documentaries are:
- Earthlings - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358456/
- Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117293/
- Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3302820/ (some have questioned some specifics presented in the documentary, it is on my list of favorites for the overall point it makes about sustainability as it relates to animal agriculture)
Also on the theme of false confessions and how broken the US justice system is, I strongly recommend watching the "Paradise Lost" series of documentaries.[1][2]
[1] - https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Paradise-Lost-The-Child-Murders-at-Robin-Hood-Hills/70038380
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost:_The_Child_Murders_at_Robin_Hood_Hills
The Frontline story was very eerie. The other famous case is the West Memphis Three:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three
Who were jailed partly because of a police-coerced confession from one of the three. They are still in prison, but apparently close to getting a re-trial.
The case was made famous by the excellent HBO documentary 'Paradise Lost' - which is a must see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost:_The_Child_Murders_at_Robin_Hood_Hills
They are lucky because their case has a high-profile because of the film - but there must be many, many other innocent people in prisons because of false confessions.
For example, many people believe that Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in Texas, was also innocent (he was also the subject of a Frontline story:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1618590505/
and a feature in the New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann
"Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117293/
A group of young men are accused of murder because, basically, they look like goths and have the misfortune of living in a conservative Christian community.
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The "Seven Up" series:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058578/
A group of British kids from various socio-economic backgrounds are interviewed starting when they are 7 years old, and interviewed again every 7 years.
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"Manufacturing Consent"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104810/
Based on Noam Chomsky's book about the influence the mass media and other institutions have on Americans.
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"Crumb"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109508/
The life of Robert Crumb, a hugely influential underground cartoonist.
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"Born Rich"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342143/
About kids who are born in to insanely wealthy families.