FRUITVALE STATION

Fruitvale is a suburban station on the San Francisco area light railway system. In the early hours of New Year's Day 2009, Oscar Grant, a young black man, was shot dead by a white transport police officer while he was being handcuffed after an altercation on the train. Many of the events were filmed by passengers on their mobile phones; it looked decidedly like murder and the officer was charged on that basis. However, the jury eventually convicted him of involuntary manslaughter and he was sentenced to a mere 2 years in prison, serving less than that before being released on parole.

Fruitvale Station is a film of those events, which we have just shown at the local cinema. Given that the story is known in advance, it's a quasi-documentary. It is also very good. If you get the chance, go and see it.

Walter Blotscher