'Charm City' Is A Harrowing Look At Both Sides Of The Crime Epidemic In Baltimore [Tribeca Review]

Simultaneously harrowing and nuanced, Marilyn Ness’ feature documentary “Charm City” explores the violence epidemic in Baltimore over the course of three years. The doc is told through the lens of the police, city council, and the citizens living in the heart of the crisis in a gripping film that deserves more exposure. While the thought of returning to the crime-ridden streets of Baltimore, so thoroughly mined in “The Wire,” may be a tough sell, Ness pushes viewers into the Rose street area in East Baltimore to support the film’s overall thesis that the only way to combat the absurdly high homicide rate is through community organization and rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure that has been mostly abandoned.

Ness, perhaps most famous for producing Kirsten Johnson’s acclaimed “Cameraperson,” embraces a three-pronged narrative approach. The film juxtaposes retired corrections officer Mr. C, a community organizer who runs the Rose Street Community Center, against Eric Winston, a police officer on the job for only two years. Sitting in the middle of these polarities is councilman Brandon Scott, an idealistic politician who wants to bridge between the police and the citizens. While Ness often expands the scope of characters to look at other facets of crime prevention —including Safe Streets, an anti-violence initiative that employs “interrupters”— these three characters make up the main narrative thrust. Overlaying these three perspectives is a slew of statistics that Ness uses to contextualize just how uphill of a battle this is (The most harrowing of such being that only 38% of all murders in 2016 were solved).

What emerges from these three points of view is a city that has been thoroughly abandoned, as the police are forced to work overtime and, often, patrol alone. While Winston is a level-headed and tolerant police officer, he still is subjected to a slew of profanities and rants everywhere he goes. On the other side, community organizers like Mr. C have to maintain a constant presence to continue relationships. When he is briefly hospitalized for diabetes, the crime rate within Rose Street rises. Upon his return, he is forced to start over again, trying to ease tensions between the young adults that make up his community. Scott, additionally, is forced to contend with budget cuts and an unhappy city council that doesn’t know what to do about the violence. Often the council’s default reaction is harsher prison time and increased police presence, which Scott believes will only increase the feuding between the two sides.

“Charm City” doesn’t cave to any easy answers and Ness is less interested in producing a polemic film but, instead, suggests the first step to violence prevention is erasing the binaries that exist between citizens and the police. A late scene in which Scott organizes a sit down between Baltimore cops and concerned citizens serves to humanize both sides. As a police officer tells a young boy about his own experiences being profiled and pulled over, we can begin to see that by treating each other as their own distinct person, and connecting on a human level, perhaps some of the violent tensions can be eased. “Charm City” may not be an easy watch, but Ness argues that through empathy, progress can be made. [A]

Click here for all our coverage from the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival.