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The camera slowly emerges from its submerged prison to skim just above the picturesque glimmer of the surface, whereby the water assumes a startling clarity.
Inspired by Matthew Van Meter’s nonfiction novel “Deep Delta Justice,” and the third film in director Nancy Buirski’s film trilogy exploring racial injustice — “The Loving Story” and “The Rape of Recy Taylor,” being the others — “A Crime on the Bayou” never explodes with fury.
Duncan stepped out of his car to try to defuse the situation, lightly touched the elbow of one white kid, and was later arrested after the boy’s father accused Duncan of slapping his son.
Newsreel of Hurricane Betsy’s devastating aftermath in 1965, whereby African Americans wade through floodwaters, their homes submerged and their belongings floating away, not only draws eerie parallels to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
A young attorney at the prestigious law firm of Arnold, Fortas and Porter, he was one of many advocates who traveled South through the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee to improve the legal defense of Black people against the region’s systematic prejudice.
Sobol and Duncan teamed against Perez, a vicious despot with deep beliefs in racial pseudoscience, to demand Duncan’s rights be upheld and not take a plea deal.
The range of archival photos and footage captured by Plaquemines Parish residents demonstrating an exuberant Black New Orleans funeral procession or the bevvy of racist white protesters vividly transports us back in time.
She further presents the challenge for African American attorneys, such as the powerhouse Black law firm of Collins, Douglas and Elie , to practice in the South.
Emotionally scarred and lighted by a blue hue akin to “Eve’s Bayou,” his pulsating memories unfurl under his staccato drawl to show how his hurt still lingers, like an old ache arriving again when it’s cold.
While choking back tears, for instance, he describes the moment the police arrived to arrest him for what felt like the millionth time.
Not only did he and Sobol remain good friends until Sobol’s death in 2020, Buirski’s 90-minute film, “A Crime on the Bayou,” reminds us how Duncan and Sobol are pillars of courage.