Requiem focuses on horrors of our everyday murder culture 6/22/2015 (Requiem for the Dead: American Spring 2014

‘Requiem’ focuses on horrors of our every day murder culture
 
What’s more destructive: A sudden flood? A freak, storm? Or the drip, trip, trip of an unattended leak?
 
Our national conversation about gun violence tends to take place after horrific acts of mass murder: Columbine, Newtown. The South Carolina church massacre that happened only last week.
 
These tragedies result in spasms of media outrage, followed by long periods of indifference. Until the next nightmare unfolds.  Directed by Emmy winners, Shari Cookson and Nick Doob,  “Requiem for the dead: American spring 2014  (8 PM, HBO) looks at gun violence from another perspective. Using local news footage, police 911 call audio, personal photographs and intimate postings from social media, “Requiem“ examines and celebrates the lives of a handful of some of the 8000 victims, who were murdered or killed themselves in just a three-month period -- the spring of 2014.
 
We see clips from the wedding video of a veteran and his bride, and then birthday parties for their three children. Then, we hear audio from the wife’s anguished mother reporting her son-in-law had started shooting, followed by the sound of the police entering the home to witness the husband turning the gun on himself -- all within earshot of the three children. It goes without saying “Requiem“ is almost too grim to watch.  But it takes even more effort to ignore it’s powerful and insistent message about the cost of our national indifference.
 
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The Rock Island Argus
22 Jun 2015, Mon · Page 12
 
Dictated Transcription: S Cookson