Interview with the Assassin

A film set in America. Ron is a cameraman. He has lost his job and sits at home. His neighbour knocks at the door. Walter is an old man. Retired, alone, and he says little. He wants to say something. He wants it recorded. The camera goes on. He makes one statement: in 1963 Kennedy was shot by a second gunman, and that man was him. From there the film is a story of verification. Ron does not believe him but keeps filming. Walter offers proof. He brings a cartridge case; he says he picked it up there that day. What he says is consistent. His military record, his marksmanship training, where he was posted at the time. The two set off. They go to Dallas. Walter walks the site. He shows where he fired from. Then they look for his old contacts. A name, an address, a retired officer. Some doors do not open. Some do, and something happens there. What the narrative is interested in is not an assassination but a camera: its idea is that after a point Ron stops being someone looking for the truth and becomes someone recording a story, and that he refuses to stop. Walter is ill too. Cancer, and he has been given little time; the narrative offers that as a motive. But another possibility stays open: he is lying and Ron is filming it knowing that. The narrative never answers. The structure is found footage. The film is entirely from Ron's camera and the image is rough to match. Something happens at the end and the recording cuts there. This is Neil Burger's first feature, made on a very small budget. Raymond J. Barry, Dylan Haggerty and Renee Faia are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes found-footage narrative and conspiracy thrillers. Who it is not for: anyone expecting answers; the film verifies no claim and that is deliberate.