Docuseries on Former Fall River Mayor Is Hard to Find
Do you remember Quibi?
The made-for-the-phone streaming service showed up in April of 2020, chock-full of quality entertainment served in episodes of 10 minutes or less. It was the perfect way to consume content -- quick, vertical videos to watch on the go as part of a busy lifestyle.
If you don't remember Quibi, you're not alone. It was gone as quickly as it came, its demise largely blamed on the pandemic. Why make content for people "on the go" when people have nowhere to go except the couch ... to watch TV?
Among the golden short-form programming to disappear with the app was Run This City, a 10-part documentary about Jasiel Correia. Fall River's charismatic mayor, in his late 20s at the time, put the city on the map for all the wrong reasons when he was federally indicted for defrauding investors in a smartphone app and, later, for extorting marijuana businesses.
Correia's denial of those charges and his refusal to step down got the attention of filmmaker Brent Hodge and producer Mark Wahlberg. Yes, that Mark Wahlberg. Hodge, who went on to direct the 2021 documentary Pharma Bro about the "most hated man in America" Martin Shkreli, was in and out of Fall River for several months, following the case against Correia and interviewing key players.
The trailer provides a taste:
The result of all that filming was 10 riveting episodes of Run This City. How many people logged onto the app to watch the docuseries? The only answer to that question is another question: Who knows?
Quibi soon shut down, turning the lights off on a range of original content.
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Run This City had a second life on streaming service Roku, according to reports from 2021, but it was short-lived. The series is now nowhere to be found on Roku or any other platform. Roku lists it as "currently unavailable."
That's too bad. It's not every day that skilled and high-profile filmmakers show up in Fall River to film a series about a topic other than Lizzie Borden.
"I'm innocent until proven guilty and I'm not going to be proven guilty," Correia confidently said in the trailer for the series.
Correia was, however, found guilty and is serving a six-year prison sentence.
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