Glenn here. Each Tuesday bringing you reviews of documentaries from theatres, festivals and on demand.
The title of Deborah Esquenazi’s film Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four is not an accident. It has been done to deliberately reference both West of Memphis and The Central Park Five, two other documentaries about famous true crime stories that focused on cases in which the wrong people – bundled together under one umbrella with a numerical media savvy nickname – were convicted of a heinous crime. The mistrials of justice in both of those cases were so monumental that multiple films, non-fiction and dramatic, exist about each.
It’s doubtful the same will become true of the San Antonio Four given the crimes for which the four women at the centre of its terribly heartbreaking story were charged and found guilty of were not as sensationally savage as those other stories. In fact, as Esquenazi’s film details, there was no crime at all. No bloodied body for which somebody absolutely had to held accountable. Rather, just a particularly cruel and shockingly stupid lie that steam-rolled into the imprisonment of four innocent women. [more...]
Esquenazi is not a flashy filmmaker. Southwest of Salem is a plain documentary in terms of aesthetics, utilizing the standard mixture of talking head interviews, daily life observation, and a welcome wealth of archival footage and news clippings. In many respects, this is actually beneficial since audiences will not need any further reason to be mad as hell and no number of bells or whistles could add anything to the story.
She is more interested in tracing the personal journey of these women – like in the scene where one of the accusers apologizes for what she did and the forgiveness the exonerated woman shows to her – rather than the no doubt more immediately satisfying true crime angle that the film not too subtly critiques when discussing the hyperbolic talk of ritualistic Satanic worship from both prosecutors and the media (akin to the West Memphis Three, just replace black-wearing Metallica fans with tight-knit lesbians). On that matter, some of the strongest passages look at how the four women’s lesbianism played a part in not only the initial lie, but also the guilty verdicts handed down despite overwhelming reasonable doubt.
Like those earlier films, the happy ending of sorts is blunted by the reality that their lives will never be the same, tainted as they were by rumour and salacious bigotry. By this stage, of course, we have seen this play out time and time again, but just like in life the injustices of a few must be called out for the benefit of the many. It may lack the morbid fascination of the Memphis and Central Park cases, but the San Antonio Four’s story is one that I am glad has been told.
Release: Currently touring Alamo Drafthouses across the country, and opening at NY's Cinema Village this week.
Oscar Chances: I wonder if the topicality of the film will make the doc branch take a nibble. At least for the shortlist. I doubt it calls enough attention to itself for a nomination. I wouldn't be surprised to see it pop up on a few critics lists though.