Who Took Johnny

On the morning of 5 September 1982, in West Des Moines, Iowa, twelve-year-old Johnny Gosch left home to deliver newspapers and never came back. He had his wagon and his dog with him. The police did not begin a serious search in the first hours; from that day his mother, Noreen Gosch, carried on the search herself for more than forty years. The documentary by Suki Hawley and her collaborators tells the case from Noreen's perspective. At the centre of the narrative are the official procedures that did not exist for child abduction at the time, and a mother pushing institutions to build them. Gosch's photograph was among the first pictures of missing children published on milk cartons. The film also relays claims Noreen encountered over the years; some of these are unverified and disputed. The case remains unsolved today. Who it's for: Viewers of true-crime documentary, unsolved cases, and narratives of institutional failure. Who it's not for: The subject is child abduction and abuse and some passages are heavy. The room the film gives to unverified claims is also open to criticism.