Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Masterful Movie

Masterful Cinema

Blistering performances.

Excellent movie of the grassroots and the Names speaking of how Mumia Abu-Jamal is and why he should be free. Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary" is more of a tribute than a hard-hitting piece of American filmmaking, which is too bad, because the subject - the imprisonment of ex-Black Panther figure Mumia Abu-Jamal - deserves a thorough, serious examination.What the documentary does well is make the case for Abu-Jamal's eloquence, prolific writings and dogged determination to fight class injustices from behind bars. And that voice. His is a voice that was born for radio and television - and revolution. After hearing and watching him, it's not hard to understand why he has so many admirers around the world. So lionized in Europe that France put him on a postage stamp but almost unknown in this country except to left- and right-wing zealots who either esteem or excoriate him, Mumia Abu-Jamal would be the perfect subject for an investigative documentary that explored his life and thought with a calm and even hand. "MUMIA: Long Distance Revolutionary" is a powerful indictment of the hypocrisy inherent in the American dream and is a must-see for any and all who are concerned with upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans." During the Jim Crow era of American history, African-Americans existed as second-class citizens in a segregated society. Laws have banned segregation but now, according to Michelle Alexander, a longtime civil rights advocate, nearly half of the nation's black men are in prison or have been labeled felons. As a result, they are subjected to discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service. Or as Alexander states: "We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."Mumia Abu-Jamal is one of the most famous and impressive prisoners in the United States. In 1982, he was charged with shooting a Philadelphia policeman and was found guilty of first degree murder. Thanks to widespread support over the years, Mumia's death sentence was recently overthrown. Documentary filmmaker Stephen Vittoria has chosen not to look into the particulars of this extraordinary man's case and focuses instead on his life and work in prison as a journalist, writer, cultural commentator, and revolutionary. In his cell, Mumia has written seven books and recorded over 2,000 radio commentaries.Writing prophetic words from prison puts him in good company with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Daniel Berrigan, and others. The always audacious Cornel West says of Mumia: "He forces us to come to terms with the depths of the crisis of the American Empire." His writing zeroes in on the death of imperialism and the search for alternatives. Also on hand to celebrate the courage and the creativity of Mumia are Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Rubin Hurricane Carter, Dick Gregory, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, and Amy Goodman.In our times of deep and widespread ethical disarray, it is good to know that this passionate black man has remained true to his vision and to his difficult role as a prophet of a nation gone astray.

This film is about Mumia Abu-Jamal and does an amazing job of humanizing him. It chronicles his life and provides incite into many aspects of American culture. The film includes interviews with supporters and opponents of Mumia and it allows the viewer to draw his/her own conclusion. His story is a story of American history that should be told and retold. This film does a great job of condensing his story into a fascinating and exciting time slot. After watching this film you cannot deny how special of a person Mumia Abu-Jamal is. The world would be a better place if more people watched this film.

Whether you believe in his guilt or innocence, you'll find Mumia a fascinating presence while watching this film. For the millions who've heard his name, but have had their opinions and impressions of him filtered through a lens of news reports, pro-police protests and bloodlust for his execution, as well as those who've only come to know him through his best-selling books or by attending "Free Mumia" rallies, this provides a more intimate look. This film captures the elements of his experience that resulted in activism and personal convictions, and makes clear the reasons that he has been opposed by so many -- beyond the obvious conviction and label of "cop killer."

This new film by director Stephen Vittoria, whose previous film was an excellent documentary about George McGovern, is easily one of the most thoughtful and engaging political documentaries that I have seen in recent years. For three decades, while he was on death row (until late 2011), African-American activist and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal had become widely known as an international symbol of the immoral nature of capital punishment in America, as well as of the pervasive institutional racism too often found throughout the U.S. justice system. Furthermore, Abu-Jamal, a former National Public Radio reporter and former president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, has been widely respected by many progressive readers for his continuing ability to write articles and books brimming with more social insight from within prison walls than most mainstream journalists are able to compose from the outside. But despite his international renown (including the controversy of that renown in conservative circles), not very much was commonly known about Mumia Abu-Jamal the person, or about the evolution of his world views. Through lively archival footage and through interviews with Abu-Jamal, with family and friends, and with some of our country's best progressive historians and political authors like Cornel West, Alice Walker, Amy Goodman, Michelle Alexander, Juan Gonzales, and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, this terrific film provides a full and compelling portrait of Mumia Abu-Jamal's life story and places his history as an activist and journalist into the context of recent civil rights and human rights movements. Anyone interested in contemporary progressive politics or in modern liberation movements should not miss this important film! The DVD version comes with a riveting 25-minute companion piece, Manufacturing Guilt, which makes the most comprehensive and persuasive case that I have seen for Abu-Jamal's likely innocence of the crime of which he was accused, the shooting in 1981 of a Philadelphia police officer. Manufacturing Guilt recounts the witness tampering, the withholding of exculpatory evidence, the lack of any physical evidence tying Abu-Jamal to the crime, and some near-certain lies by key police officers that were at the core of Abu-Jamal's original conviction. It also describes compelling new evidence that has come to light in the ensuing years, including a witness who has come forward to say that he saw the shooter that night and it was not Mumia Abu-Jamal, a revealing re-examination of the original crime scene photos, and another man's actual confession to the crime. After watching this feature film and its companion DVD piece, I am more curious than ever to see what will happen next in Abu-Jamal's ongoing legal appeals process, now that his sentence was commuted in late 2011 from the death penalty to life without parole, and now that his legal team will have to continue to try to figure out how to get the courts to finally acknowledge that Abu-Jamal's original trial was grossly unfair, and that he deserves to be retried or freed.