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Film Recommendations
A
film screening in your congregation can be an excellent and
moving way to break down the walls of misinformation and
stereotype that keep many from understanding the injustices of our
criminal justice system.
If you would like to borrow a Partakers copy noted below, please contact meaallen@partakers.org .
Juvies (2004)
Description: Juvies offers a stark reveals the shocking reality of juvenile offenders in America,
many of whom are serving draconian sentences for marginal involvement
in so called 'gang' crimes. The director, Leslie Neal taught a video
production class at Los Angeles Central Juvenile Hall to 12 juveniles
who were all being tried as adults. Juvies is the product of
that class, made jointly by teacher and students, witnessing
heartbreaking stories of children abandoned by families and a system
that has disintegrated into a dehumanizing vending machine of
injustice. Narrated by former Juvie Mark Wahlberg.
Availability: Partakers copy
What I want my words to do to you (2002)
Description: If you have committed a violent crime, is it possible to redeem yourself? In What I Want My Words to Do to You,
women inmates at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women try to
answer the question. Through a series of writing exercises and
discussions led by playwright Eve Ensler, the deeply personal mixes
with the humorous and the tragic, profoundly showing the power of art
in the service of healing. The film culminates in an unprecedented
prison performance of the women's writings by Glenn Close, Marisa
Tomei, Hazelle Goodman, Mary Alice and Rosie Perez.
Availability: Amazon, Netflix, Partakers copy
Deadline (2004)
Description: Proving that a documentary can be both rigorous and stylish, Deadline
delves into the hot-button topic of the death penalty, with particular
focus on the 2002 investigation initiated by former Republican governor
of Illinois, George H. Ryan, after an investigative journalism class at Northwestern University proved that three men on Illinois'
death row were innocent. The current debate focuses not on the moral
right-or-wrong of capital punishment, but on whether the legal system
can keep an innocent man from being condemned to death. The debate is
by no means simple, and Deadline presents a balanced picture,
interviewing lawyers, anti-death penalty advocates, politicians, and
men who've been released from death row, all of whom are lucid and
articulate.
Availability: Amazon, Netflix
The Exonerated (2005)
Description:
Bob Balaban directs an impressive cast in Court TV's powerful drama
about six people released after being wrongly convicted and sent to
death row. Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Delroy Lindo,
Aidan Quinn and David Brown Jr. take the stage (which is left bare, to
focus attention on the harrowing true stories) as the inmates, relating
the horrors they had to ordeal before being set free -- and the
challenges they faced afterward.
Availability: Netflix
The Last Graduation (1998)
Description: The Last Graduation
frankly explores the issues involved in the federal and state
governments' rush to cut off funds for effective college prison
programs. Framed within the historical context of the Attica prison
riots in 1971, the film explores the development of education programs
within the prisons and documents the ultimate closing of the Marist College prison education program in New York.
With filmmaker Benay Rubenstein; author Hettie Jones; and former
inmates Precious Bedel, a graduating college senior, and Jan Warren,
who completed her BA and MA in prison, the film showcases the power of
education and the limitless possibilities for change.
Availability: Partakers copy
The Farm: Life Inside Angola Prison (1998)
Description: Angola Prison in Louisiana is the biggest maximum security prison in the country. A small video crew was given
unprecedented access to the inmates, of which six were chosen from
5,000 to give a portrait of life in the facility, also known as "the
Farm." What begins as a traditional documentary transforms into an
investigation of the human spirit, of hope in the face of hopelessness.
We see the parole board pass judgment before the applicant even makes
his case and make their decision before the door has closed behind him.
Yet this is not so much a work of investigative journalism as a
cultural study. What the viewer comes away with is a glimpse into an
almost surreal atmosphere best defined by an incongruously chipper
clown who wanders the halls on Christmas Eve to cheer up the prisoners
in isolation. On the surface this seems like a well-integrated, safe,
supportive environment, but under the surface of normalcy is a mix of
doom and hope.
Availability: Amazon
Yes, In My Backyard (1999)
Description:
Through the eyes of one farming-community-turned-prison-town, this
documentary explores the increasing and multi-layered dependence of
rural America
on prison industries and subtly probes the profound implications of
this dependence for both the keepers and the kept, and for our
society's understanding of and response to crime.
The first documentary of a prison town, this film examines the small town of Coxsackie, New York in rural Greene County. Once a thriving farm community with a solid base of small manufacturing and a busy main street on the banks of the Hudson River, the community of Coxsackie now hosts two state prisons that are the largest employers in the county.
Availability:
Direct from producer. 30-day rental VHS tape for $35, or a VHS tape can
be purchased for $129, a DVD for $169. Send check to:
Galloping Girls Productions, Inc.
3050 Route 67
Freehold, NY 12431
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