As a media partner for 2025’s Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology, the Filmmaker Mixer Podcast extended review opportunities to the Official Selections who were made by Portland-based filmmakers.
HELP SOLVE A MURDER screens during the Documentary Shorts: Real Stories, Rewired
Friday, August 8, 2025 6:00 PM PDT
Theory Theater
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Help Solve a Murder is a documentary series made by Gal Pal Films, in partnership with SENSELESS VIOLENCE LEADS TO SILENCE and in association with ALLIANCE FOR A SAFE OREGON.
Gal Pal Productions, LLC, Director, Mary Matthews, opens this first episode on a black and white still. We immediately hear a voice over by one of the main subjects: Perlia Bell. Although being a part of a family that has experienced twenty acts-of gun violence, Perlia appears to have barely aged and her voice remains strong and articulate.
Help Solve a Murder’s opening credits are a captivating compilation of beautifully lit shots, most noticeably the night shot/time lapse of the billboard installation for the series graphic. There is something special and even unique about this documentary-rivaling true crime television shows that I watch regularly. I believe it is the amount of heart and soul that was lovingly included into every moment shared- even the hard-to-watch retellings. Distinctly personal, this first episode for the series focuses on victim of gun violence, Tyz’juan James, whose sister, Asianique Savage, along with her grandmother Perlia, are on a noble quest for justice and change.
This short documentary is well-crafted. It utilizes stills, news clippings, to camera interviews and voice over of news reporting to brilliantly humanize Tyz’juan James life and murder. It also shines a very strong spotlight on the unfortunate by-product of unsolved crimes by sharing a series of events that demonstrate how the very institutions designed to protect people can inadvertently contribute to the surviving family’s lack of closure.
My hope is that this documentary series helps bring a necessary form of closure for the families stricken with loss because of unsolved gun violence and I hope it helps encourage changes to the system that often thwarts it.
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For more information about the filmmaker Mary Matthews:
For more information about Senseless Violence Leads to Silence visit: