I Just Watched Finding Kendrick Johnson

This documentary film tells the story of Kendrick Johnson, a Georgia teen who was found dead inside a rolled-up in a gym mat. The case has remained unsolved. This film documentary revisits the case with the help of Kendrik's family and others invested in this case. With actress Jennifer Lewis as the narrator and Jason Pollock as the director behind the film.

The film opens with Mitch Credle, a homicide detective talking about Kendrick's case. His family shares beautiful childhood photos of Kendrick to him growing up to be a teen star athlete, a glance of the inside of his room, and artistic portraits of him. As the title credits roll, a look at surveillance footage of Kendrick going into the school gym which would have been the last time seen alive.

Until we see inside the gym Kendrick's shoe next to the gym mats, unwrapped Skittles, someone's sweater on the ground, and the body of gruesome body of Kendrick wrapped in a gym mat. A news report on Kendrick's body was found at his school. Actress Jennifer Lewis narrates the introduction to Kendrick's family from his parents to his siblings. The family speaks on the last time they saw Kendrick, to trying to find him at the school building, contacting the school bus driver who said that Kendrick hasn't seen him. Until the scene where everybody in school including his family found him dead and the family was truly emotional to talk about it. I feel for them, especially his aunt who was too emotional to talk about it. Throughout the film, it got me scratching in my head whether he goes inside the gym mat to get a shoe or someone that he knows beats him to death and rolls him up in the gym mat hiding him because there's no way when Lt. Jones said on the newsreel he was looking for another shoe in the gym mat I didn't buy it. They started to share a disfigured face of Kendrick which broke my heart it is similar to Emmett Till, a Chicago boy who was murdered in Money, Mississippi 1955 pretty much a way Kendrick's mother showed the world what the school did to her son like the way Mamie Till-Mobley did with Emmett. The film adds a mixture of black men getting lynched, a history of photos of black men hanging on their necks, and today's racism like for instance Eric Garner and Michael Brown's death and Trayvon Martin. We see Kendrik Johnson's families and supporters protesting for justice for Kendrick believing his death was cover-up.

The most interesting unsurprising part is that Valdosta is in the Deep South where Confederate lives and sharing the harrowing story of Mary Turner, her husband and her unborn baby which was news to me because I had no idea about the story about Mary.Then it got even more questionable when Kendrick's body was digged for a second autopsy and his organs were missing in his decomposed body filled with newspapers stuffed inside his body. Like it made me question if the person who was in charge of the first autopsy or someone who fought with Kendrick. Then, there was FBI agent and his sons who were Caucasin, one of them speak on about the fight between him and Kendrick and the whole alleged story about him messing with someone's girlfriend.

This documentary was beyond groundbreaking, eye infesting most likely to feast your eyes on this whole investigation. Actress Jenifer Lewis has an amazing but in my opinion, I don't think this documentary needs narration. This film breaks down everything from start to finish on what happened to Kendrick. It makes my blood boil that the area where he lives covers up his murder and they don't care leaving his families heartbroken.

Director: Jason Pollock

Writer: Jason Pollock

Producer: Jason Pollock

Narrated by Jennifer Lewis

Year: 2021