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View All“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”: A Minority Bank, Racial Bias, and the Democratization of Credit
February 26, 2017
Steve James presents the story of the Sungs and their struggle to save their family-run Chinatown bank from a misguided prosecution based on cultural incompetence.
“The Return”: Resentencing, Reentry Support, and a Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Evolving Roles
June 21, 2016
“The Return” reveals why a lawyer, deeply involved in the resentencing of Three Strikers as a way of reducing mass incarceration, placed reentry services near the top of his concerns.
Only “Good Victims” Need Apply: “Tales of the Grim Sleeper” and Poor Black Women in Crack Culture
May 27, 2016
The story of a serial killer who took advantage of crack culture to prey on black women can tell us much about what is wrong with the notion of “the good victim.”
“Last Day of Freedom”: Bill Babbitt’s Struggle with the Stigma of Being the Brother of a Murderer
January 25, 2016
How does a brother cope with the shame, guilt, regret, and anger of being the relative of a mentally-ill ex-Marine who committed a murder, but should not have been executed for it?
Not Girls in a Gang nor a Gang of Girls: A Law-Focused Review of “Out in the Night”
August 11, 2015
The law uses the term “gang” too loosely. “Out in the Night” explores what happened when the term was applied to four young-adult black working-class lesbians from Newark.
Collective Trauma, Transitional Justice and Two Documentaries about Philadelphia’s Confrontation with MOVE
July 3, 2015
As “Let the Fire Burn” (2013) and “The Bombing of Osage Avenue” (1987) show in very different ways, May 13, 1985 was a traumatic day in the history of police/citizen relations in Philadelphia. Its legacy is reflected in contemporary controversies over race relations in America.
“The Look of Silence”: Vicarious Fear, Transitional Justice, and Documentary Practice
June 8, 2015
Like “The Act of Killing,” Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Look of Silence” examines the 1965 Indonesian genocide; this time the focus is Adi Rukun, the brother of a victim, who pursues his own mission of truth and reconciliation.
Portraying Young Black Men “with a Background”: An Authenticating Audience Reviews “Evolution of a Criminal”
February 26, 2015
“Evolution of a Criminal,” with its complex portrait of the filmmaker, offers an good starting point for an audience with lived experience to consider how the media should portray young black men with criminal records.
Blurring the Boundary Between the Doc World and the Law: A Conversation with Chico Colvard
December 16, 2014
Chico Colvard–documentary filmmaker, film series curator, and lapsed lawyer–explains how he puts skills acquired during his legal training to work in the documentary world.
“Get Digi With It”: AUDIOVISUAL TECHNOLOGY’S CHALLENGE TO RESTRICTIONS ON RECORDING IN PENNSYLVANIA PRISONS
October 21, 2014
The PA Department of Corrections’ nearly complete ban on recording in its facilities by lawyers and the media needs to be reexamined in light of advances in the use of digital audiovisual technology and visual legal advocacy.
When HBO or POV Comes Calling: Defense Counsel’s Role in an Observational Documentary of a Criminal Proceeding
September 21, 2014
Supreme Court precedent required that a juvenile offender serving four consecutive terms of LWOP be resentenced. Learn about the role his defense lawyers played in representing him as the subject of the observational documentary “15 to Life.”
Storytellers Needed! Collaborations and the Promise of i-Docs
August 14, 2014
When social justice collaborations and storytellers are in short supply, visual legal advocates should pursue the promise of i-Docs (Interactive Documentaries) to encourage participation and activism for change.