Cops and Robbers

Cops and Robbers ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Directors: Arnon Manor, Timothy Ware-Hill.

Based on the poetry by Ware-Hill written for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery murder in May 2020, this short animated film is dedicated (and the final caption says) to “all the black men women and children who have been victims of racial profiling, police violence, loss of life and other injustices, just for being themselves”.

What’s interesting about “Cops and Robbers” is that it was created by black students and artists from all over the world; each of them used their own visual style to represent the source material: 2D, 3D, hand drawing, black and white, puppetry and so on (To see the variety of people who costributed to this in the end credits is just as fascinating as the short film).

The final result is something which in only 4 minutes adds power, beauty and a level of emotion to the already hard-hitting words.

The cacophony of images probably gets slightly too overwhelming in a few places and the quietest moments are actually the ones I found more impactful, but maybe that was the point: the loud noise and confusion and energy adds to the desperation of the words.

This is poetry on film in the best possible sense, where all the elements (music, visuals, words, editing) work together towards the powerful message.

On Netflix