Rush to Judgment

Emile de Antonio’s seminal documentary was the first film to propose that President John F. Kennedy could not have been killed by a single assassin. Presented to mark the 60th anniversary of one of the most tragic and shocking events in United States history, Rush to Judgment examines the findings of the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Based on Mark Lane’s book of the same name, the film is largely comprised of interviews with eyewitness to the shooting including James Tague, Lee Bowers, Mary Moorman, and Abraham Zapruder (who shot the iconic film footage of the event.) For better or worse, Lane’s book and de Antonio’s film are widely credited with spawning the conspiracy theories around the killing that persist to this day. De Antonio directed two other well-known documentaries: Point of Order (1964), a film that used existing footage to chronicle the Army-McCarthy hearings, and Painters Painting (1972), which captured the New York City art scene and arose from his friendship with Andy Warhol. (124 mins., 4K DCP)

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Rush to Judgment, courtesy of Films We Like.