Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station, written and directed by Ryan Coogler, and released by the Weinstein Company in 2013, is a "bio-pic", which follows the murder of Oscar Grant. To provide a brief background, Oscar Grant was a 22-year old man who was shot and killed on New Year's Eve of 2008 by Johannes Mehserle, a Bart Police Officer at Fruitvale Station located in Oakland, California. Although Fruitvale Station raises many moral and ethical concerns throughout the entirety of it's film -- police brutality, excessive violence portrayed by individuals of power, power dynamics, etc. -- I feel Fruitvale Station is relevant, especially today, as it is one of the first cases (and films) to show witnesses utilizing his or her gadget, whether cell phone or hand camera, to document scenarios, such as the one detailed above. Throughout the film, the audience can gage the importance of Oscar's phone as it is his primary way of communicating with his family, his girlfriend and his friends, and as it becomes more of a character than an object throughout the latter half of the film.

Once Oscar, Oscar's girlfriend and Oscar's friends embark on the Bart to begin their New Year's Eve festivities, the audience watches Oscar's two friends video tape two females kissing one another as the clock strikes midnight. Not only is this significant due to the fact that is it foreshadowing an outsider looking into somebody else's personal world via the lens of technology, but it is also significant, as this is how so many individual's communicate and connect with one another today -- via sharing videos, content, social media, etc. As the night progresses and as tensions rise, Bart Police Officers locate and escort Oscan and his friends off of the train and onto the cement of the train landing. After the Bart police officers aggressively and violently push and violate Oscar and his friends, Oscar attempts to pull out his cell phone to record what is happing and what will continue to happen. The police officers demand Oscar put's his phone away immediately. Additionally, the women Oscar met at the grocery store, who was also on the Bart with Oscan and his friends that evening, also attempts to record and document the harm the police officers were implementing that evening. Unfortunately, the train pulls away before the lady from the grocery store can capture any more footage. The notion of documenting via gadgets is extremely paramount, as today, cell phones capture everything from present-day police brutality, historical protests, confrontations, abuse, etc. ​