Who Killed Alex Odeh? - Co-directors Jason Osder & William Lafi Youmans

In October 1985, Santa Ana, California was shaken by a brazen act of political violence when Palestinian American Alex Odeh, a beloved teacher and community leader, was killed by a tripwire bomb planted in his office. Despite substantial evidence and identified suspects, the case was never solved. Who Killed Alex Odeh? reopens the mystery, tracking a renewed investigation in real time as new leads emerge, long-buried records come to light, and the forces behind a political assassination are finally confronted. Unfolding like a detective thriller, the film weaves archival footage, firsthand testimony, and new reporting to expose the violent fundamentalist networks behind the attack and the institutional failures that protected them. As the investigation deepens, the story widens to reveal how the extremist ideology that fueled Odeh’s murder did not disappear - it evolved, gaining traction and legitimacy in the modern political landscape. Directed by Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans, a Jewish American and a Palestinian American, Who Killed Alex Odeh? is both a gripping cold-case pursuit and a timely examination of political violence, asking what it means when acts of terror go unresolved, and how justice denied continues to shape the world we live in. About the filmmaker - Jason Osder is the director of the award-winning documentary Let the Fire Burn about the 1985 confrontation between the group MOVE and the Philadelphia police that claimed the lives of eleven people. Supported in part by the Sundance Institute, Let the Fire Burn premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the best editing in a documentary award and a jury special mention for best new documentary director. The film went on to play film festivals around the world, air nationally on PBS, and receive the Independent Spirit Truer than Fiction Award. Jason is an Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University. He creates online courses on media production for LinkedIn Learning and occasionally writes about film. About the filmmaker - William Lafi Youmans is an Associate Professor at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs. Broadly interested in questions of transnationalism, power and communication, his primary research interests include global media, Middle East politics, and Arab-American studies. Youmans is the author of Unlikely Audience: Al Jazeera's Struggle in America. He is currently a fellow with the GW Humanities Center and was an Inclusion Imperative visiting faculty fellow at the Dresher Center for the Humanities at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County last year. Photo credit: Massimo Municchi