West of Memphis

There has been much media coverage of the West Memphis Three, including three separate documentaries by co-directors Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger. But Amy Berg’s West of Memphis is the definitive document on the arrest and false prosecution of Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, Jr., and Jason Baldwin back in 1994 for the murders the previous year of three eight-year-old boys. Berg’s film examines the flimsiness of the prosecution’s case and, thanks to funds provided by filmmaker Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), produces an alternate suspect. Berg also documents the trio’s recent release, a bittersweet arrangement given that it was conditional on them pleading guilty.