O'Sullivan, Shane [Creator] (2016) Anatomy of a murder : Sirhan Sirhan and Robert Kennedy. (Film).

Abstract

Sirhan Sirhan, the convicted assassin of Bobby Kennedy, has never been able to remember the shooting and defence psychiatrists concluded he was in a hypnotic state at the time, a real-life Manchurian Candidate. This video essay was made to publicize Sirhan’s case before his parole hearing in February 2016 (www.sirhanbsirhan.com). It remixes elements from my film RFK Must Die (2008) with previously unseen footage of Sirhan's 2011 parole hearing and echoes of his case found in movies on amnesia and post-hypnotic suggestion. The essay flows from the crime of the accused and his foggy recollection; to his legal defence, the conspiracy theory and his parole hearing. The film plays with the nature of memory – amnesia induced by trauma or coercion, its status as evidence and the writing of political memory in fiction and non-fiction film.

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