72 Seconds in Rittenhouse Square (now streaming on Paramount+) is a tense true-crime documentary series that tick-tocks to a potential spark in a powder keg. The three-parter details a high-profile Philadelphia case: Michael White’s fatal stabbing of Sean Schellenger in 2018, which ripped open a can of worms that highlighted a variety of socio-political issues that have long plagued the city. The series teases not only never-before-seen cell phone footage of the stabbing, but also the first extensive interview with White since his murder trial. Director Tigre Hill (Mumia Abu-Jamal documentary The Barrel of a Gun) takes a long, hard look at the incident and its context, and likely reveals that there are no simple answers to the case’s many complicated questions.
Opening Shot: A shot of the Philadelphia skyline; soon, we hear audio of 911 calls.
The Gist: 72 Seconds opens with an overlapping melange of 911 audio pleading for help on the night of July 12, 2018. A man had been stabbed and left on the ground as the perpetrator took off, running through Rittenhouse Square, a nearby park. Many different voices describe the assailant: a Black man in a white T-shirt, about 6’ 1”. As a manhunt ensued; the victim, Sean Schellenger, died within the hour. Schellenger was a well-known real estate developer who’d been having drinks with co-workers that night prior to the incident. We hear vague details about an argument on the street, and about how the aforementioned Black man in a white T-shirt, who’d been delivering food on his bike stopped and got involved, eventually pulling out a knife – details likely to be pored over more thoroughly in a later episode.
We get some details from that night, though. A cop says no evidence could be found, and DNA and fingerprint evidence was inconclusive. Journalists get into the context, how Philadelphia can be a violent city where “murder is commonplace” – but not in Rittenhouse Square, a relatively ritzy area known for its high property values and well-off residents. The next day, police got a call. A man was ready to turn himself in: Michael White, 20 years old. We see footage of him in a police interrogation room, refusing to answer questions until his lawyer is present. He sits with his head in his hands; later, when he’s alone in the room, he curls into the fetal position on a folding table.
We also get a glimpse into Schellenger’s character through talking-head testimonials from friends and family. He was a popular, gregarious guy. Big personality. The son of a single mom who dropped out of school at 17 to give birth to him. Athletic, the captain of the football and wrestling teams. A co-worker talks about how he ran into Schellenger at a hangout for real estate folk; they made plans to meet, said see you tomorrow, and he never saw his friend alive again.
On the surface, the case seems straightforward, although Hill soon shows us that it’s anything but. There’s conflicting information about what precipitated the violence. There are rumors that Schellenger used a racial epithet that angered White; Schellenger’s friends and family call it character assassination, and say racism is “not even in his DNA.” Activists and legal experts talk about how systemic racism and police corruption are major problems in Philadelphia. A year prior to the crime, Larry Krasner, a popular civil rights lawyer with a reputation for suing police and defending poor people and people of color, was elected district attorney, which – coincidentally or otherwise – was soon followed by a spike in crime throughout the city. And attorneys working on the case finally get a break when they track down a witness who had filmed the stabbing and temporarily posted it on Facebook. One commentator calls this situation a “tinderbox,” and there’s no way we can disagree.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? I can’t help but compare every true-crime series to the gold standard, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark; few reach that threshold for excellence, but 72 Seconds isn’t too far behind.
Our Take: In the first episode, Hill manages to withhold information and set up dramatic reveals without indulging sensationalism, which is no small feat. He maintains his integrity by being a thorough and insightful interviewer, and adhering to a let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may M.O. – the only way to approach such thorny material. There are times when you wish he didn’t need to cut up the narrative into three episodes so he could forego the occasional repetition of information and not have to build up to cliffhangers; a more linear approach to the topic seems more logical. But I guess diligence for a complicated subject doesn’t so easily lend itself to the confines of a feature-length documentary, and as it stands after the debut 43 minutes, 72 Seconds is excellent.
Hill structures the series for people who aren’t already familiar with the story (myself included). So it’s only after he gets deeper into the racial context of the incident, and hear commentators explicitly saying it’s representative of the battle between haves and have-nots, that we start analyzing the director’s decisions, especially the way he frames his subjects to reflect the truth of their socioeconomic status (e.g., Schellenger’s co-worker is interviewed in a posh high-rise office reflecting how they have well-paying jobs, especially compared to White’s job delivering food on a bicycle), and to properly contextualize some of the tropes of this case, ranging from stereotypes of “angry young Black men” to the man who “doesn’t have a racist bone in his body” but seems to have been capable of letting rip with a drunken slur. Hill has an eye for telling the story visually where other documentarians don’t, and exhibits enough insider knowledge about Philadelphia to enrich his exploration. All this elevates 72 Seconds above the norm for true crime fodder. Hill’s goal isn’t exploitation, not in the least. With the first episode, he launches a clear campaign to find a less-clear-cut truth than eye-catching news stories and high-profile trials did. It’s just good journalism.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: There’s Michael White. Sitting on a couch. Looking into the camera. And clearly not in prison.
Sleeper Star: To be clear: There is no “star” of any kind in this story. But Hill landing an in-depth sit-down with White feels like a blockbuster get.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Anybody who knows the city’s histrionics… knew that it was gonna expose the racial divide, the fault lines of Philadelphia between race and class.” – journalist Dann Cuellar
Our Call: 72 Seconds is a fascinating true-crime doc that avoids a lot of the nonsense that drags the genre down. STREAM IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.