Kitty Genovese Movie in the Works

Kitty Genovese's story is one of the city's most notorious: the woman was killed while dozens of her neighbors stood by—leading to the development of the notion of the "bystander effect" and a little glimpse into man's inhumanity. It's an almost archetypal story—and the Sloan Foundation and Tribeca Film Institute awarded screenwriting MFA grad Robert Cohen $50,000 to produce a film on the incident and its aftermath for psychologists studying the case, reports IndieWire.

Per Cohen, a psychologist involved "starts to meet them and there’s a sense that he feels a strong connection to them. Too strong? One of the witnesses, Liz, becomes a love interest in the story and questions of ethics arise." For an indie film, this certainly sounds like a potboiler—and the Tribeca Film Institute will spend the next year helping Cohen, who works at Current TV, shepherd his project along.

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_