Best moment in Fruitvale Station is when the director creates a moment that shows the undercurrent of bias in the audience by momentarily introducing two unnamed characters then flipping it by creating an impromptu party situation. The scene basically asks the question, “Why were you automatically worried about them? See nothing happened. How do you see people? As a father? As a fiancé? As a potential employee? As a friendly acquaintance? As an enemy? How you see people can affect them, but more importantly shows you who you are.” The entire film takes an unflinching look at the day in the life of a young man that would not have entered public consciousness if not for a few tragic circumstances. This man is not portrayed as a saint, and even the ones who caused the tragic event are not portrayed as evil, but rather as egregiously narrow in their actions and thinking. Would it have been OK if they acted the same if no one had died? I think that the answer would still be no, but it is clear that when they realized what they had done, they stopped being officials and became people. So how can we always be people. The film does this by portraying every character as people with good and bad moments, but ultimately loved and worthy of more than what they were reduced to at that tragic moment. You will leave very, very sad & possibly weeping in the aisles. One elderly white couple (gotta love Cambridge) exclaimed, “F**cking pigs,” which was not my sentiment and was not the point of the movie, but one possible reaction. I don’t often urge people to go to the theaters, but considering where the US is politically and culturally, particularly when Stop and Frisk and Stand Your Ground Laws are beginning to proliferate nationally, I would urge everyone to communicate to Hollywood what our values are by voting with your dollars and seeing it in the movie theaters. If I didn’t like the film or its values, I wouldn’t urge you to see it for the following reason, but if you need an additional incentive, it is an independent film by a first time black filmmaker. Hopefully go to a local theater instead of a chain, but see it where ever you can as soon as possible before it leaves theaters and is forgotten. Warning: there is cell phone footage of the actual event, and an animal dies.