West Memphis Three Will Attend NYFF Premiere of Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

By
Sophia Savage
|
Thompson on HollywoodOctober 6, 2011 at 7:53AM

The West Memphis Three (Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. - just released from death row) will make their first public appearance at the New York Film Festival's premiere of Joe Berlinger’s and Bruce Sinofsky’s updated Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. 

The West Memphis Three (Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. - just released from death row) will make their first public appearance at the New York Film Festival's premiere of Joe Berlinger’s and Bruce Sinofsky’s updated Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. 

Berlinger says:

"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." 

More information on the film, the third in a series produced by HBO Documentary Films, is below:

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.