''Baltimore Rising'' is a 2017 documentary on the protests in Baltimore after the death of Freddie Gray. It was created, directed, and produced by actor and filmmaker

Sonja Sohn Sonja Denise Plack (' Williams), known professionally as Sonja Sohn, (born May 9, 1964) is an American actress, filmmaker, and activist, best known for portraying Baltimore detective Kima Greggs in the HBO drama ''The Wire'' (2002–2008). Sh ...

and

HBO Films HBO Films (formerly called HBO Premiere Films and HBO Pictures) is an American production and distribution company, a division of the cable television network HBO that produces feature films and miniseries. The division produces fiction and non-f ...

. It covers the

death of Freddie Gray On April 12, 2015, Freddie Carlos Gray Jr., a 25-year-old African American, was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department for possession of a knife. While in police custody, Gray sustained fatal injuries and was taken to the R Adams Cowley Sh ...

, the protests and riots immediately following, efforts to keep the peace during the unsuccessful prosecutions of the six police officers involved, as well as efforts to change policing by both the

Maryland General Assembly The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives, and the lower ...

and the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equ ...

. It includes segments covering the perspective of

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...

protesters, community leaders, and members of the

Baltimore Police Department The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is the municipal police department of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Dating back to 1784, the BPD, consisting of 2,935 employees in 2020, is organized into nine districts covering of land and of waterw ...

. Among the protesters, it focuses on Kwame Rose (21) and Makayla Gilliam-Price (17), both young activists. Among community leaders, the documentary shows Adam Jackson and Dayvon Love, members of the group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. Among the police, ''Baltimore Rising'' includes Lt. Colonel Melvin Russell, head of a community affairs program in the BPD; Detective Dawnyell Taylor, the lead police investigator into the death of Gray; and interim police commissioner Kevin Davis, who came to his position shortly after Gray's death. ''Baltimore Rising'' premiered on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

on November 20, 2017.

Reception

Melanie McFarland of ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'' praised the documentary, writing it accurately communicated the "systemic and entrenched" problems on both sides: police who feel unsafe, retreat to their cars, and see everyone as potentially dangerous suspects, which furthers the alienation felt by the community and by the activists. She also felt that while it provided no neat conclusions or solutions, it accurately presented and summarized the many conflicting voices and opinions in the conflict. Hank Steuver of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' called ''Baltimore Rising'' simultaneously fascinating, scattered, and frustrating. He felt that this reflected the disorganized nature of the protests and the difficulties with channeling grievances into useful systemic change, however, so the frustration was authentic and accurate to the source material.

David Zurawik David Lee Zurawik (born October 26, 1949) is an American journalist, writer, and professor. He has been the TV and media critic at ''The Baltimore Sun'' since 1989 and is a professor of communications and media studies at Goucher College. Before t ...

of ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

'' thought ''Rising'' was excellent, especially its "brilliant" opening, but felt it was somewhat too lenient in its treatment of the Baltimore police's efforts, which he felt should have been examined more skeptically.

References

External links

Official website

Official trailer
*{{IMDb title, 7653006 2017 television films 2017 films HBO documentary films Killing of Freddie Gray 2010s American films