New America Nyc

Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was stabbed to death on a street in Queens, New York, in 1964, and 38 witnesses, it was claimed, did nothing. More than 50 years later, her brother uncovers a lie that transformed his life, condemned a city, and defined an era. The murder of Kitty Genovese transfixed New York and the world; it came to symbolize the apathy and indifference of urban life, and for many, a great social breakdown. Now, The Witness, a new film by James Solomon, follows Kitty's brother Bill Genovese about his sister's life and tracks down the neighbors who, according to the press, did nothing as the terror-filled screams of rape and murder took place outside their windows. A half-century after the crime, spurred by the recent death of Kitty's murderer Winston Moseley, the film also re-examines the journalistic telling of the story, its distortions, and how certain narratives "go viral" by capturing the anxieties of their times. Join New America for a screening of The Witness followed by a conversation that