INDEPENDENT LENS

LET THE FIRE BURN

SATURDAY, MAY 17 @10:30PM

This documentary brings to life one of the most tumultuous clashes between government and citizens in modern U.S. history, as a longtime feud between Philadelphia police and radical urban group MOVE came to a tragic climax in 1985.

Formed in 1972 as a “back to nature” commune by the charismatic leader John Africa, MOVE members took the same surname in honor of their ancestral homeland, wore their hair in dreadlocks, shunned technology, and promoted a diet of raw food. Grappling for a way to describe the group, reporters sometimes referred to MOVE as a “cult” and later as “terrorists.”

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