Brother's Keeper | |
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![]() Film poster | |
Directed by | Joe Berlinger Bruce Sinofsky |
Produced by | Joe Berlinger Bruce Sinofsky |
Starring |
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Music by | Molly Mason Jay Ungar |
Production company | Wellspring Media Inc. |
Distributed by | Creative Thinking International Ltd. |
Release date |
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Running time | 104 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,305,915 [1] |
Brother's Keeper is a 1992 documentary directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. The film is about an alleged 1990 murder in the village of Munnsville, New York. [2] The film is in the "Direct Cinema" style of the Maysles brothers, who had formerly employed Berlinger and Sinofsky.
The film contrasts two groups of society: people from rural areas and those from larger cities. It also shows how the media flocked to the town to cover the story.
This film displays two completely opposite views of the Ward brothers. One opinion is that of the locals, who defend the Ward brothers as simple country folk. The other is that of the press, who stereotype the brothers as poor, uneducated hill people.
The Ward sister was not featured in this film because of her death in the 1980s. However, her daughter Pat makes an appearance in the DVD's special features.
After its theatrical run, Brother's Keeper aired on PBS as part of the series American Playhouse . [3]
In a rural farming community near Utica, New York, four brothers lived in a dilapidated house. The brothers were Roscoe (July 23, 1919 – June 23, 2007), [4] Lyman George (July 7, 1923 – August 15, 2007), [5] William Jay (July 10, 1926 – June 6, 1990), [6] and Adelbert Daniel (known as Delbert) (October 5, 1930 – August 6, 1998). [7] The men were barely literate, had no formal education, and farmed land that had been in their family for generations.
William Ward, who had been ill for years, was found dead one morning. Delbert was accused of killing him, perhaps by smothering. The prosecution's theory at trial was that Delbert had performed a mercy killing in order to put William out of his misery after a period of severe headaches and declining health. As the film progresses, it is revealed that during the coroner's examination of William's body, semen was found on clothing and on William's leg, leading to the suggestion that Delbert had killed William in an episode of "sex gone bad." The film never follows up on this media sensation.
Delbert Ward was acquitted at trial, largely because of the lack of any physical evidence and because the New York State Police violated Delbert's rights by coercing a confession (which he later retracted) and having him sign a written statement which he could not understand due to his illiteracy.
Delbert Ward died at age 67 at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York on August 6, 1998. [8]
Roscoe Ward died at age 88 on June 23, 2007. [9] [10]
Lyman Ward died at age 85 in Utica, New York on August 15, 2007. [11] [12]
Munnsville is a village located in the Town of Stockbridge in Madison County, New York, United States. The population was 474 at the 2010 census. The village is named for an early settler, Asa Munn, and located on New York State Route 46.
Paradise Lost 2: Revelations is a 2000 American documentary film directed and produced by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, and the sequel to their 1996 film Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, about the trials of the West Memphis Three, three teenage boys accused of the May 1993 murders and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys as a part of an alleged satanic ritual in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills is a 1996 American documentary film directed, produced and edited by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky about the trials of the West Memphis Three, three teenage youths accused of the May 1993 murders and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys as a part of an alleged satanic ritual in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Ward Hunt was an American jurist and politician. He was Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1868 to 1869, and an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1872 to 1882.
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is a 2004 American documentary film about American heavy metal band Metallica. The film follows the band from 2001 to 2003, a turbulent period in the band's history which included the production of their 2003 album St. Anger, frontman James Hetfield entering into rehab for alcoholism and the departure of bassist Jason Newsted as well as the hiring of his replacement Robert Trujillo. The title of the film shares its name with the song of the same name from St. Anger.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 is a 2000 American horror film directed and co-written by Joe Berlinger and starring Jeffrey Donovan, Stephen Barker Turner, Kim Director, Erica Leerhsen, and Tristine Skyler. Its plot revolves around a group of people fascinated by the mythology surrounding the film The Blair Witch Project; they go into the Black Hills where the original film was shot and experience supernatural phenomena and psychological unraveling.
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Joseph Berlinger is an American documentary filmmaker and producer. Particularly focused on true crime documentaries, Berlinger's films and docu-series draw attention to social justice issues in the US and abroad in such films as Brother's Keeper, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Crude, Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger and Intent To Destroy: Death, Denial and Depiction.
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Bruce Sinofsky was an American documentary film director, particularly known for his films the Paradise Lost trilogy, Brother's Keeper and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, all created with Joe Berlinger.
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Forest Hill Cemetery is a rural cemetery in Utica, New York founded in 1850. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. Forest Hills Cemetery is located at 2201 Oneida Street, in Utica, New York. It is a non-sectarian cemetery, which means anyone of any religion can be buried there. Over the years some nationally and locally recognized people have been buried here. Because of its many monuments, grave sites of famous people, along with other historical structures, the cemetery is sometimes referred to as "Utica's outdoor museum".
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Crude is a 2009 American documentary film directed and produced by Joe Berlinger. It follows a two-year portion of an ongoing class action lawsuit against the Chevron Corporation in Ecuador.
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is a 2011 American documentary film directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, and sequel to their films Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996) and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000). The three films are about West Memphis Three, three teenage boys accused of the May 1993 murders and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys as a part of an alleged satanic ritual in West Memphis, Arkansas. Purgatory offers an update on the case of the West Memphis Three, who were all recognized guilty of the murders in 1994 but kept on claiming their innocence since then, before culminating with the trio's attempt at an Alford plea.
West of Memphis is a 2012 New Zealand-American documentary film about the West Memphis Three that was directed and co-written by Amy Berg, and produced by Berg, Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson, and Damien Echols and his wife, Lorri Davis. It was released in the US by Sony Pictures Classics to critical acclaim, and received a nomination for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.
Joe Brewster is an American psychiatrist and filmmaker who directs and produces fiction films, documentaries and new media focused on the experiences of communities of color.
Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger is a 2014 American biographical documentary film produced and directed by Joe Berlinger. It is produced by CNN Films and Radical Media. Its world premiere was at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014.
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Damien Wayne Echols is an American writer, best known as one of the West Memphis Three, a group of teenagers convicted of a triple murder. Upon his release from death row in 2011 under an Alford plea, Echols authored several autobiographies and spiritual books. He has been featured in multiple books, documentaries, and podcasts about his spiritual works and the West Memphis Three case.