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The Witness
Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was stabbed to death on a street in
Queens, New York, in 1964, and 38 witnesses, it was claimed, did
nothing. More than 50 years later, her brother uncovers a lie that
transformed his life, condemned a city, and defined an era.
The murder of Kitty Genovese transfixed New York and the world;
it came to symbolize the apathy and indifference of urban life, and
for many, a great social breakdown. Now, The Witness, a new film
by James Solomon, follows Kitty's brother Bill Genovese about his
sister's life and tracks down the neighbors who, according to the
press, did nothing as the terror-filled screams of rape and murder
took place outside their windows.
A half-century after the crime, spurred by the recent death of Kitty's murderer Winston
Moseley, the film also re-examines the journalistic telling of the
story, its distortions, and how certain narratives "go viral" by
capturing the anxieties of their times.
Join New America for a screening of The Witness followed by a
conversation that explores the case that motivated the study of
"The Bystander Effect," led to the creation of 911 emergency call
lines, and held the public imagination to become an American
obsession.
This is a Social Cinema Screening.
View all episodes
By New AmericaCatherine "Kitty" Genovese was stabbed to death on a street in
Queens, New York, in 1964, and 38 witnesses, it was claimed, did
nothing. More than 50 years later, her brother uncovers a lie that
transformed his life, condemned a city, and defined an era.
The murder of Kitty Genovese transfixed New York and the world;
it came to symbolize the apathy and indifference of urban life, and
for many, a great social breakdown. Now, The Witness, a new film
by James Solomon, follows Kitty's brother Bill Genovese about his
sister's life and tracks down the neighbors who, according to the
press, did nothing as the terror-filled screams of rape and murder
took place outside their windows.
A half-century after the crime, spurred by the recent death of Kitty's murderer Winston
Moseley, the film also re-examines the journalistic telling of the
story, its distortions, and how certain narratives "go viral" by
capturing the anxieties of their times.
Join New America for a screening of The Witness followed by a
conversation that explores the case that motivated the study of
"The Bystander Effect," led to the creation of 911 emergency call
lines, and held the public imagination to become an American
obsession.
This is a Social Cinema Screening.