Killing Time

Verdict of the People

July 1943 •Russian

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

September 2003 •English

British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.

Stories for Murders

February 1993 •Bulgarian

A father killed his son. In a state of alcoholic delirium, a young man murdered his friend. A 21 year-old boy shot a policeman. Faced with their death sentence, they tell about what happens with them at the moment when they are between death and ... death.

Hell

October 2019 •Spanish

Chennu committed his first crime when he was 15 years old: being a street kid. And he entered hell: Pademba Road. The adult prison in Freetown. In hell, Mr. Sillah is in charge, and there is no hope. Chennu got out after four years. Now he wants to go back.

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

October 2015 •Panjabi

A woman in Pakistan sentenced to death for falling in love becomes a rare survivor of the country's harsh judicial system.

La guillotine, une invention bien française

September 2021 •French

Forty years after the abolition of the death penalty in France, voted on September 18, 1981, the guillotine remains in the collective imagination as the instrument of the death sentence. This machine, developed during the Revolution to render justice more equal, was presented as progress. Over time, opinion has been divided on the subject of the death penalty, the guillotine becoming the object of man's cruelty, a remnant of an archaic way of dispensing justice and fuelling the many debates around the death penalty and its abolition.

Pickle

April 2016 •English

An ode to man's capacity to care for all creatures throughout their sometimes greatly protracted existence, displayed through the homegrown remedies Tom and Debbie Nicholson create for disabled animals.

Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Case for Reasonable Doubt?

March 1998 •English

Documentary covering the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a black nationalist and journalist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer and sentenced to death in a trial marked by controversial prosecutorial and defense tactics and charges of racism.

Les Tribunaux d'Hitler

August 2023 •French

The destruction of the traditional legal system is probably one of the lesser-known yet essential goals of the Nazi state. The aim was to establish the supremacy of the "people's community" over the individual by subjugating the judicial system. The documentary looks at the careers of four people who were actively involved or became victims.

An Execution by Hanging

July 1898 •English

A depiction in the hanging of Edward Heinson, an assumed criminal assault convict in Jacksonville, Florida.

WHAT GOES AROUND Rudolf Slánský

November 2020 •Czech

The full-length television documentary, using currently found audio-visual records, tells the story of the fabricated political process from November 1952, the story of its victims and its masterminds. At its end, 11 executed high-ranking officials of the Communist Party of the Czech Republic, committed to the communist party, who mechanically "recited" memorized confessions and accusations of "accomplices", former friends and colleagues in front of the court in response to prearranged questions from the prosecutors and judges.

Letters from Europe

April 2021 •Italian

"Letters from Europe" brings to light the words of men and women who gave their lives resisting the Nazi and fascist conquest from 1939 to '45 across the European continent. The moving goodbyes penned by a few of those sentenced to death are sometimes true spiritual testaments that explore the meaning of civic responsibility, human existence, fraternity, and life and death. Their words, which the film mingles with footage of the present day, can perhaps restore meaning to a humanist ideal and to the ever-changing idea of a united Europe.

Sommersby

February 1993 •English

Set in the South just after the US Civil War, Laurel Sommersby is just managing to work the farm without her husband, believed killed in battle. By all accounts, Jack Sommersby was not a pleasant man, thus when he suddenly returns, Laurel has mixed emotions. It appears that Jack has changed a great deal, leading some people to believe that this is not actually Jack but an imposter. Laurel herself is unsure, but willing to take the man into her home, and perhaps later into her heart.

Dead Man Walking

December 1995 •English

A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.

The White Rose

September 1982 •German

During the Second World War, a small group of students at Munich University begin to question the decisions and sanity of Germany's Nazi government. The students form a resistance cell which they name the "White Rose" after a newsletter that is secretly distributed to the student body. At first small in numbers and fearful of discovery, the White Rose begins to gain massive support after a Nazi Gauleiter nearly incites a student riot after a provokative speech. At this point, the matter is taken over by the German Gestapo, who pledge to hunt down and destroy the members of the White Rose.

Lamm

January 1999 •Hungarian

Have I committed a crime? Lamm cannot answer this question. But maybe it doesn't matter. After all, a mistake has been made, and now he can leave town. He thinks not of the chandelier, not of the look on the executioner's face in the tavern, but of the woman who slapped him the night before, the woman who now lies motionless before the wall, as still as a pebble. Is that the punishment? Lamm was pardoned. But the punishment only begins now, now, when the dead city disappears forever into the woods.

The Man They Could Not Hang

August 1939 •English

Dr. Henryk Savaard is a scientist working on experiments to restore life to the dead. When he is unjustly hanged for murder, he is brought back to life by his trusted assistant. Re-animated he turns decidedly nasty and sets about murdering the jury that convicted him.

God of Pain

August 2024 •English

A man wakes up in the middle of the street with no idea where he is or how he ended up there. Soon he is forced to confront the demons he is battling within before a gateway to the underworld unlocks the secret of Algea the God of Pain.

Dying to Be Happy

September 2023 •English

An old cancer patient reminisces about his youthful days spent at a little place called "Spatterdock".

Aida - Arena di Verona

November 2013 •Italian

The grand scale and magnificent acoustics of the Roman arena in Verona are ideally suited to the pageantry of Verdi's Egyptian opera, presented here in a staging that is true to the original 1913 production, framed by obelisks and sphinxes and filled with chorus and dancers. Chinese soprano Hui He has won international acclaim for her portrayal of the eponymous slave girl whose forbidden love for the war hero Radamés (Marco Berti, the experienced Verdi tenor) brings death to them both.