Visiting Filmmakers Series: Mahrya MacIntire with The Slow Hustle

Wednesday, November 2, 2022 4:30 PM to 7:00 PM EDT
Johnson Center, Cinema

The Slow Hustle chronicles the still unsolved death of Baltimore police detective Sean Suiter, fatally shot in 2017 while in the line of duty, and explores the ongoing speculation about what really happened that day.

With candid interviews from members of the Baltimore P.D., Suiter’s widow and children, journalists, lawyers and political leaders, The Slow Hustle examines the continuing mystery surrounding Suiter’s death and the multiple theories that emerge in the investigation of the case, including that Suiter’s death was a calculated murder hit or a suicide.

Ultimately, the journey reveals how the culture of corruption within the ranks of the Baltimore police force contributed to the destruction of the public’s trust and impacted the police department’s ability to solve a shooting death of one of its own. The unsolved case also sparked far-reaching implications for a city already grappling with the complexities of policing in contemporary, urban America.

The Slow Hustle is nominated for a 2022 News & Documentary Emmy Award in the Outstanding Crime and Justice Category.


Mahrya MacIntire is a filmmaker, producer, and multimedia artist, as well as creative strategist. Her work explores community (re)building and trauma healing.

Before Mahrya produced The Slow Hustle, she co-produced Baltimore Rising (HBO, 2017) with Sonja Sohn. The documentary follows activists, police officers, community leaders, and gang affiliates, who struggle to hold Baltimore together in the wake of Freddie Gray's death in police custody, and explores how to make change when change is hard.

Mahrya's work has aired on HBO and PBS, and screened at AFI DOCS, IDFA, DOC NYC, Urbanworld, the National Building Museum, Georgetown Law School, and the University of Virginia. She has contributed to projects for Netflix, Glamour magazine, FKA Twigs, and VICE; she also managed the creation of an extensive digital archive for the documentary feature Another Way of Living (2015), with materials catalogued to aid future research at the Reston Historic Trust & Museum. 

Mahrya is a graduate of the Production program at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. She is currently based in Washington, DC. 


See The Slow Hustle HBO site here.

See Mahrya McIntire's site here. 

See this interview with The Slow Hustle director Sonja Sohn: "We're all carrying some level of mass grief as Black people."

This event is presented by Visiting Filmmakers Series; African and African American Studies; College of Humanities and Social Sciences; College of Visual and Performing Arts; and Film at Mason.  



#VisitingFilmmakersSeries #FilmAtMason #TheSlowHustle

For more information: 

Anjuli Singh, asingh80@gmu.edu, Exhibitions and Office Coordinator, Film at Mason

Cynthia Fuchs cfuchs@gmu.edu, Director, Visiting Filmmakers Series at Mason; Interim Director, Film at Mason

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