William Friedkin's Early Documentaries: The People vs. Paul Crump + The Thin Blue Line

Long before the car chases and spinning heads, Friedkin got work as a TV director of liberal-guilt pretensions. The first short documentary (1962) never aired, perhaps because it comes down hard on police racism in the murder conviction of a railroaded black man. The second doc (1966) looks at skyrocketing crime in the cities of New York, Los Angeles, Rochester and Friedkin’s hometown, Chicago.