Justice
A Documentary Turns Its Lens to Baltimore’s Stoops and Cop Cars
Filmed in the years surrounding the killing of Freddie Gray, Marilyn Ness’s Charm City searches for signs of progress amidst pervasive pain and despair.
In the opening sequence for Charm City, Marilyn Ness’s new documentary set on the streets of perennially struggling Baltimore, Maryland, the title flickers intermittently to suggest the city’s perilous position: Is “Charm City” forever doomed to be “Harm City”? Filming in the years surrounding the killing of Freddie Gray in 2015—a period that saw the deaths of over 1,000 city residents due to an epidemic of gun violence—Ness dives down to street level to search for signs of progress amidst pervasive pain and despair.