EXHIBIT A-IOI - West Memphis Three Case - Document Archive

Case 4:09-cv-00008-BSM Document 30-5 Filed 07/17/2009 Page 33 of 297
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SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT,Pg. A37, SPOTLIGHT
LENGTH: 979 words
Copyright 1997 The Morning Call, Inc.
Morning Call (Allentown, PA)
January 18, 1997, Saturday, THIRD EDITION
Correction Appended
HEADLINE: SPOTLIGHT ON BRUCE SINOFSKY...JOEL BERLINGER;
DOCUMENTARIANS TASTE BITTER FRUIT IN 'PARADISE'
BYLINE: AMY LONGSDORF; (A free-lance story for The Morning Call)
BODY:
It's not unusual for a filmmaker to know how well his last movie did at the box office. But it is strange for him
know how well it did in Allentown.
On the telephone from his New York office, Bruce Sinofsky is quoting numbers he seems to have committed to
memory. "We did $ 2,300 in a week," he says, describing the box-office performance of 1992's "Brother's Keeper" during
its 19th Street Theatre run. "That's good. Allentown loves us."
Sinofsky is not participating in idle boasting. He's just answering a question about the commercial viability ofhis
and partner Joe Berlinger's second documentary, "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills." The movie,
which begins a week-long run tomorrow at the 19th Street, has been even more critically acclaimed than "Brother's
Keeper." But audiences have been reluctant to line up for this chilling portrait ofmurder in a small Southern town.
The 2-1/2-hour movie is, at times, difficult to watch, but after it's over you'll be glad you kept your eyes open. What
propels "Paradise Lost" is the brutal slaying ofthree 8-year-old West Memphis, Ark., boys -- Steven Branch, Christopher
Byers and Michael Moore.
After the mutilated bodies were discovered on May 6, 1993, in a shallow creek along an interstate, the small town
demanded justice. The police delivered three teen-agers accused ofbelonging to a devil-worshipping cult and killing the
boys in a satanic ritual. There was no hard evidence linking Jessie Misskelley Jr., 17, Jason Baldwin, 16, and Damien
Echols, 18, to the crimes, but the slightly retarded Misskelley made a confession after 10 hours ofquestioning.
Originally broadcast on HBO, the documentary is being distributed by the filmmakers' own company after independent
studios such as Miramax and October Films turned it down, primarily because ofthe grim subject matter.
"The people who go see 'Paradise Lost' are very moved by it, but it's hard to get people to go to a movie like this,"
admits Sinofsky. "I'll be very curious to see how we do in Allentown this time around. 'Brother's Keeper' was a bittersweet
movie; 'Paradise Lost' is bitter."
At the heart of"Paradise Lost" in an indictment of a community that believes the teen-agers were guilty ofmurder
simply because they owned books on witchcraft, dressed in black and listened to Metallica records. "These guys were
weird, but there are lots ofkids in Greenwich Village who are just as weird and nobody believes they're murderers,"
says Sinofsky, 40.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about "Paradise Lost" is that it's not a cut-and-dried dissection ofthe fallibility
ofthe justice system a la Errol Morris' "The Thin Blue Line" (1988). It's impossible to watch Sinofsky and Berlinger's