"4 Little Girls," Spike Lee's documentary about the 1963 Baptist church bombing on 16th Street in Birmingham, Alabama, opens with "Birmingham Sunday" recording and graves bearing the names of the four girls who died in that bombing. That’s all that many people know about this event, except that it was a turning point in the civil rights movement, and Lee’s film attempts to correct that omission.
The film tells the story in its entirety, with an emphasis on the volatile environment that led to the explosion. Martin Luther King called Birmingham "the most segregated city in the United States," and inside it, the 16th Street Baptist Church played a key role in the mounting protests of the early 60s.
This is Lee's first feature-length documentary, known for his feature films, commercials and music videos. But this time he demonstrates the drama inherent in this story, and his restraint lends seriousness to a story that has its own dynamics and narrative contours.
Archival footage and photos taken by Spike Lee are vivid and depressing: for a brief time we see the mutilated corpses of four victims dressed in white robes for a service at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Most memorable are the stories of still suffering parents (the most touching witnesses of Lee) who lost their children in the explosion.
4 Little Girls is an important act of preserving history, a purposeful and effective film that captures a dark and important moment in history with striking clarity.