BROTHER'S KEEPER
Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
USA, 1991
Documentaries, 105min, OF
Brilliant documentarians Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky collaborated for the first time on this enthralling documentary about the «Ward boys» of rural Munnsville, New York. The four Wards were farmers, living in the same run-down shack where they were born, some 60 years earlier. One morning, Bill Ward didnt wake up. And the state decided that Delbert Ward had smothered him in the night, taking mercy on his ailing brother and simply killing him. Brothers Keeper follows the trial of Delbert; which wouldnt have happened, it seems, had Delbert not signed a confession (despite his ability to barely read). The directors interview townsfolk, follow the media circus that quickly surrounds the trial, and how the Ward brothers lives are turned upside down. Then theres the question: Did he do it? (Christopher Null)