THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER announces the first public appearance of the “West Memphis Three” at the premiere screening of the updated version of Joe Berlinger’s and Bruce Sinofsky’s PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY, an HBO Documentary Film
NEW YORK, October 6, 2011 — The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that the West Memphis Three (Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr.) will make their first public appearance at the premiere screening of the updated version of Joe Berlinger’s and Bruce Sinofsky’s PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY at the New York Film Festival on Monday, October 10 at 6:00PM.
Co-director and Emmy and Peabody Award-winner Joe Berlinger said “What a remarkable opportunity to celebrate the power of cinema by having the subjects of these films — one of whom just six weeks ago was on death row and the others locked away for the rest of their lives — on hand to meet the audience who will witness their 18-year wrongful conviction odyssey on what is sure to be a monumental occasion for everyone involved Monday evening.”
The first-ever premiere screening of the film with a new ending includes footage from the events surrounding the recent celebrated release of the trio. The third film in a trilogy by Emmy-winning documentarians Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY features never-before seen footage of the epic chronicle of the “West Memphis Three,” Arkansas teens convicted of the 1993 murders of three eight-year-old boys. The film quickly catches you up on this lightning-rod case, initially tried without a shred of physical evidence and amidst hysterical claims of satanic cultism. We then flash forward to the present, where the accused await their final appeal and staggering new revelations further point to a gross miscarriage of justice. A remarkable journey filmed over 18 years, the film follows an American tragedy, and capped by an extraordinary reversal of fortune. The film is also a profound meditation on the passage of time, interrupted, and salvation too long in coming. PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY is an HBO Documentary Films production set to premiere on the network in 2012.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, currently planning its 49th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named “The Chaplin Award”—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.
The 49th Annual New York Film Festival is made possible by the generous support of Royal Bank of Canada, 42 Below Vodka, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, illy caffè, HBO FILMS, WABC-7, Dolby, Kodak, WNET New York Public Media, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com
