Emotions run strong whenever a police officer dies in the line of duty. Fellow officers, prosecutors, judges, in fact all of polite society becomes eager and hell-bent to find a perpetrator whom they can begin punishing as quickly and thoroughly as possible by any means available. Some individuals feel that if breaking the rules helps ensure a successful prosecution then it is perfectly acceptable to threaten witnesses, suppress contrary evidence; stack the juror pool, and read wrong parts of the law to them when they have questions, even threatening to sequester them over the 4th of July holiday weekend. After a successful conviction some of these same individuals feel it their God-given calling to suppress any word spoken on behalf of the convicted one, whether that calls for continued intimidation of would-be witnesses, disruptions of lawful protests, rants on hate-radio, or even a few words of ugliness on movie review sites. Previous movies have already explored the arrest and conviction of Mumia Abu Jamal. Long Distance Revolutionary is not about that. Instead, it is a memoir of the person, Abu Jamal. Director Stephen Vittoria traces the entire life of Jamal, from his teenage roots, through his successful career as an NPR journalist, and on through 30 years of incarceration. Viewers can draw their own conclusions, but it soon becomes obvious that Jamal's annoying habit of clearly exposing political corruption made him a target that had to be silenced. Despite relentless repression Jamal has continued to speak and write about the same subjects that have always been his passion. Long Distance Revolutionary brings this man to life for a new generation that knows little or nothing of his struggle, and in this film we are privileged to view his inner being, to look into the soul of a gentle, but hated man who has never wavered from his quest for what is right.
