Sometimes I browse through the instant movies that are available on Netflix and I don’t find anything at all worth watching. Sometimes I start a movie and get bored a few minutes into it. A lot of times I keep a movie on in the background while doing something else and never really get into it. But every once in awhile, I easily pick a movie that looks good and it turns out that it actually is. That was the case with Echo of Murder (Who Killed Atlanta’s Children?)

This is a fascinating movie that essentially tells the story of two situations in one. First, there is the case of over 30 murders that took place in Atlanta around the same time in the early 1980′s. These were all murders of black children, both girls and boys. A man was convicted of two of the crimes and loosely linked to the rest by questionable evidence and then the case was dropped. That’s the first part of the story.

The second part of the story is that the first story was picked up by two journalists at SPIN magazine in 2000. These two journalists got wind of the tale and figured that it was loosely related to their music magazine because the man who was convicted of the crimes had been involved in the recording industry. They did their research and brought out the tale that hadn’t yet been told. The second story revealed in the movie is of their journalistic approach to uncovering the first story.

It’s an interesting movie. Is it a stunning cinematic presentation? Not really. There are some things that could have been done better. But that’s not the point. The point is that the film manages to touch on a number of different explosive topics and to reveal some great insights into all of them. The main topic was the racism behind the murders themselves, the way they were covered up and the way that people dealt with the journalists as they were trying to uncover the story. Another topic was the approach to journalism itself, how you uncover facts and what responsibilities you have to the public when telling a story like this. Another was about the justice system and how sometimes easing the public’s mind becomes more important than finding the truth about a crime.

The story itself is, of course, horrifying. All of these children died and no one actually knows who the real killer was. There may have been 30 deaths that were all related or there may have been twice that many. They may have been committed by the KKK or by a serial killer or by someone else entirely. We just don’t know. And the fact that most of us didn’t even know about this case is horrifying in and of itself.

Definitely worth a Netflix rental!

Tags: echo of murder, good movies, who killed atlanta's children