Mumia Case Film Aims To Provide Context

PHILADELPHIA - Film maker Tigre Hill, who is no stranger to controversial topics, dives into one of the most controversial cases the city has ever seen: the 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner and convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

His documentary called "The Barrel of a Gun" opens Tuesday at the Merriam Theatre.

And it's expected to open with a flurry of protests by supporters of Abu-Jamal, who is 56-years-old and now on death row in a state prison in Greene County, Pennsylvania.

Executive Producer Kevin Kelly joined the Fox 29 News at 10 to talk about the documentary, which comes out Tuesday.

The film chronicles how Abu-Jamal helped form the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panthers, his role as an activists and journalist, all of the way up to the night of the Dec. 9 killing of Faulkner near the corner of 12th and Locust streets.

Included in the film are interviews with Abu-Jamal, Hollywood supporters like Ed Asner and Danny Glover, as well as Gov. Ed Rendell and Faulkner's wife, Maureen.

"A lot of people think they know what happened, but very few people do," Kelly said. "We wanted to strip away all of the nonsense, all of the political agendas, all of the people who never read it or never bothered to read the case but purport to know about it and get to the core of what actually happened because, no matter what, there was an injustice done that night. Either a man is in prison unjustly, or a widow has had to suffer through some painful things and for a long time."

Kelly said he went into the project knowing "about as much as everybody else."

"I grew up in Philadelphia, I have family who were involved in the Osage Avenue in the MOVE incident that happened ’ the second MOVE incident ’ and I was curious about it. But I asked Tigre Hill, I said, 'Look, do your homework. Get to the truth. And if the truth, if there's exculpatory evidence that, you know, would exonerate Mumia Abu-Jamal, fine. But get to the truth.' And that's what people kind of have an aversion to surrounding this issue."

What might police officers come away from this movie thinking?

"Look, the whole point of this movie was to provide context," Kelly said. "If you just look at the individual incident, the murder, you know, it's easy to have differing opinions. But I think if you have, if you provide the context of, you know, who this guy was and what his life was all about and how he became radicalized, I think people are going to have a pretty definite opinion when they walk away. And that's the truth: you can have two sides of an issue, but you can only have one truth."

Pam Africa, one of Mumia's most outspoken supporters, has promised to protest the film everywhere it's being shown.

"Look, Mumia Abu-Jamal has become a meal ticket for a lot of people," Kelly said. "If they want to protest, then protest. It's what they do. They've become professional protests. Nothing we can do about it, and hopefully everything is done in a peaceful manner."

For more information on "The Barrel of A Gun," check out the documentary's Facebook page by clicking here .

Or, for tickets to Tuesday night's premiere visit kimmelcenter.org .