[5] The Shame of a City, a feature-length documentary that catapulted Hill into the local and national political spotlight,[6] has been identified as a tool used by reform candidate Michael Nutter in securing election to Philadelphia mayoral office in 2007.
[10] After receiving Hill’s endorsement, Nutter himself screened “The Shame of a City” five times to sold-out audiences, using it to raise money[11] and awareness of his opponents’ political techniques.
The case had ignited worldwide controversy, with Abu-Jamal’s arrest and trial becoming a cause célèbre for celebrities, foreign dignitaries and human rights campaigners.
[1] The resulting film, The Barrel of a Gun, diverged from earlier documentaries In Prison My Whole Life and A Case for Reasonable Doubt to present the facts of the crime as testified to at trial and the historical events that led up to and may have caused it.
[20] It included on-camera interviews with parties to the controversy including widow Maureen Faulkner; Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell; prosecutor Joe McGill; Philadelphia district attorney Lynne Abraham; Abu-Jamal attorney Robert Bryan; celebrities Ed Asner, Mike Farrell, Danny Glover and Sister Helen Prejean; former Philadelphia police commissioner Sylvester Johnson; Pam Africa, head of the International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal and close ally of MOVE founder John Africa; author David Horowitz and radio talk show host Michael Smerconish.
[22] Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8) distributed copies of the film to Senate offices in Washington, D.C., in February 2014 as part of his efforts to oppose Debo Adegbile’s nomination to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice.
[23] Hill also directed a music video [24] for a song that was included in the film that was written by Extreme, and former Van Halen, frontman Gary Cherone titled "The Murder Of Daniel Faulkner".
[33] The documentary is about the controversial 2018 stabbing death of a white, wealthy real estate developer by a young African American Uber Eats delivery person.