The case against Mumia

After four years of work, personal attacks, and hours of interviews that stretched from Center City to Hollywood to St. Denis, France, filmmaker Tigre Hill is ready to unveil The Barrel of a Gun, his documentary about the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

And, not surprisingly, supporters of convicted killer and death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal - who has become a worldwide cause celebre for anti-death row activists - are right on Hill's tail.

With Faulkner's widow, Maureen, in attendance, protests expected, and security provided by members of the city's Fraternal Order of Police, which has endorsed his film, Hill will premiere The Barrel of a Gun at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Merriam Theater, around the corner from where Faulkner was shot on Dec. 9, 1981. Tickets are $46.99, in honor of Faulkner's badge number, and proceeds will go to the Daniel Faulkner Educational Grant Fund.

An hour later, at the Ritz East, filmmakers Johanna Fernández, a Baruch College professor, and Kouross Esmaeli of Big Noise Films will screen their pro-Mumia film, Justice on Trial, four years in the making but expedited to challenge Hill.

About the competing film, a somewhat exasperated Hill said he would not comment on a film he had not seen. Of his own work, he said: "It's going to enlighten people."

"The truth has always been there," Hill said last week, standing near 13th and Locust, where Faulkner was killed nearly 29 years ago. Abu-Jamal was found a few feet from Faulkner's body, shot in the chest with his gun nearby. "Nothing has changed. It's just a matter of who's willing to say what."

Hill said he struggled with the sheer volume, power and scope of the story, perhaps the most incendiary homicide in the city's history, a story that continues to resonate globally. He likened the process to "taking War and Peace or Crime and Punishment and making a movie out of it. You have to make decisions."

In the end, he made a film that places Abu-Jamal in the context of two movements he was associated with: the Black Panthers and MOVE. The film documents the Panthers' advocacy of guerrilla tactics and their anti-police rhetoric (Off the Pig!), and shows both organizations to be engaged in violent struggles with police. Abu-Jamal, a radio reporter in Philadelphia, joined the Panthers when he was 16, and was later associated - some said obsessed - with MOVE.