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Criminal Justice


Criminal Justice



FLY SO FAR

Directed by Celina Escher

A grave warning of how far state control of women's bodies can go, FLY SO FAR follows Teodora Vasquez, who was sentenced to thirty years in a Salvadorean prison after she suffered a stillbirth.

As states in the U.S. enact abortion bans, FLY SO FAR serves as a grave warning of how far government control of women's bodies can go. This brave film from Swiss-Salvadorean filmmaker Celina Escher is set in El Salvador, a country with some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world, including the criminalization of those who experience miscarriages and other obstetric emergencies..

The narrative centers on Teodora Vasquez, who was in the ninth month of her second pregnancy when she fainted and suffered a stillbirth. When she woke up at the hospital, she was accused of murder and was sentenced to thirty years in prison for aggravated homicide. At Ilopango Women's Prison, she becomes the spokesperson for The Seventeen, a group of working-class women who were all incarcerated after having miscarriages. Many of these same women became pregnant after being sexually assaulted. While it exposes brutal human rights abuses, FLY SO FAR is unmistakably a story of collective resistance, activism, sisterhood, as well as the self-determination and agency of women.


DVD (Spanish, Color, Closed Captioned) / 2021 / 89 minutes

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BELLY OF THE BEAST

By Erika Cohn, Angela Tucker, Christen Marquez, and Nicole Docta

Filmed over seven years with extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently and formerly incarcerated people, BELLY OF THE BEAST exposes a pattern of illegal sterilizations, modern-day eugenics and reproductive injustice in California prisons.

When a courageous young woman and a radical lawyer discover a pattern of illegal sterilizations in California's women's prisons, they wage a near-impossible battle against the Department of Corrections. With a growing team of investigators inside prison working with colleagues on the outside, they uncover a series of statewide crimes -- from inadequate health care to sexual assault to coercive sterilizations -- primarily targeting women of color. This shocking legal drama captured over 7-years features extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently and formerly incarcerated people, demanding attention to a shameful and ongoing legacy of eugenics and reproductive injustice in the United States.


DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2020 / 81 minutes

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CRIME ON THE BAYOU, A

Directed by Nancy Buirski

Two young men-Gary Duncan, an unjustly arrested Black man and Richard Sobol, his Jewish attorney-take Duncan's case to the Supreme Court to fight for the right of all Americans to a fair trial.

A Crime on the Bayou is the story of Gary Duncan, a Black teenager from Plaquemines Parish, a swampy strip of land south of New Orleans.

In 1966, Duncan tries to break up an argument between white and Black teenagers outside a newly integrated school, in the course of which he dares to gently lay a hand on a white boy's arm. That night, police burst into Duncan's trailer and arrest him for assault on a minor.

A young Jewish attorney, Richard Sobol, leaves his prestigious D.C. firm to volunteer in New Orleans. With his help, Duncan bravely stands up to a racist legal system powered by a white supremacist boss to challenge his unfair arrest. Their fight goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and their lifelong friendship is forged.

Written and directed by Nancy Buirski A Crime on the Bayou is the final film in her acclaimed trilogy profiling brave individuals who fought for justice in and around the Civil Rights era.


DVD / 2020 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 91 minutes

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BREACH OF TRUST

Directed by Mishal Mahmud

Told from the point of view of women advocating for accountability and change, this compelling documentary by USC Graduate Mishal Mahmud examines the sexual assault scandal at the University of Southern California, detailing crimes committed by former gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall and exposing the active cover-up on the part of the administration.

The high-profile sexual assault scandal at the University of Southern California involving Dr. George Tyndall, the only full-time gynecologist in the school's student health clinic from 1989 to 2016, first made headlines when journalists Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton exposed horrific abuses in a 2018 LA Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative report. USC recently announced it would pay $1.1 billion to patients, making it the largest sex abuse payout in higher education history. Told from the point of view of the women and sexual assault survivors advocating for change, BREACH OF TRUST offers an inside-look at the abuse, as well as the institution's complicity.

Despite hundreds of accusations and reports of misconduct, Tyndall continued his medical practice for decades, treating more than 17,000 women, without being held accountable. After USC supervising nurse Cindy Gilbert reported Tyndall to the campus rape crisis center in 2016, Tyndall was finally suspended and placed on paid leave. Anchored by stories of the survivors and Gilbert's whistleblower account, this film chronicles the timeline of Tyndall's crimes and his ultimate downfall. Director and USC graduate Mishal Mahmud compassionately brings the voices of hundreds of women to the forefront, allowing space for them to speak up and be heard.

BREACH OF TRUST offers important insight into an all-too-familiar story of male predators employed by high-profile universities (such as Larry Nassar at the University of Michigan and Jerry Sandusky at Penn State University) who used their positions of power to target students - and the administrations' ensuing complicity in allowing the abuse to go unaddressed and unpunished.


DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2019 / 24 minutes

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FALSE CONFESSIONS

By Katrine Philp

Defense attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen exposes the dark side of the American justice system.

Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. commonly use a complex psychological tactic during interrogations to get suspects to confess to crimes, often without regard for whether or not the suspect is actually guilty. FALSE CONFESSIONS follows defense attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen as she fights to put an end to this institutionalized injustice. Through the stories of four of her cases, including that of Korey Wise who was only sixteen when he was manipulated into a false confession in the infamous Central Park Jogger case, the film examines the psychological aspect of how people end up confessing to crimes they have not committed as well as the consequences of these confessions – for those accused, for their families and for society.

On the heels of the difficult and critically important national conversation sparked by Ava Duvernay's miniseries about The Central Park Five, FALSE CONFESSIONS is an urgent in-depth look at the dark side of the American Justice system that goes even further into investigating the social, racial and legal issues at stake.


DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2019 / 91 minutes

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PRISON FOR PROFIT

By Ilse & Femke van Velzen

South Africa's Mangaung Prison was supposed to be a model facility. The first privately run prison in the country would be a place where the most hardened inmates could be rehabilitated through humane treatment and given access to programming and educational opportunities. Instead, run by global security giant G4S, Maungaung prison has been the focus of repeated complaints of violence, torture, abuse, and neglect.

PRISONS FOR PROFIT follows investigative journalist Ruth Hopkins, author of The Misery Merchants: Life and Death in a Private South African Prison, as she uncovers the truth about Mangaung. The film features leaked footage from within the prison-some shot by guards themselves-and interviews with former prisoners who left Mangaung with permanent physical and psychological damage.

Prisoners speak about being beaten, repeatedly stunned with electric shocks, and involuntary injected with powerful anti-psychotic drugs. And life is not great for the guards either. With G4S failing to create a safe environment, they regularly fear for their lives. In some of the most powerful sequences of the film, former guards admit to brutal treatment of inmates while also recognizing the toll their job has taken and the mistreatment they have faced at the hands of the company.

PRISONS FOR PROFIT is not only an investigation into the shocking conditions at Mangaung. It is also a condemnation of the conditions that result when the state contracts out core functions to companies driven by profit-and when prisoners become just another revenue stream.


DVD (Color, With English Subtitles) / 2019 / 84 minutes

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GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY

Director: Harry Moses

Guilty Until Proven Guilty explores Louisiana's criminal justice system through the story of Tim Conerly, a young African-American man who was arrested in the wake of an armed robbery in New Orleans and waited 28 months for a trial for a crime he says he did not commit. After more than two years in the Orleans Parish Jail, Conerly must choose between accepting a plea bargain of seven years or risking a sentence of 49 1/2 to 198 years if he is convicted at trial. It's a choice that no human being should have to make...and one that someone with more resources could almost certainly avoid having to make.


DVD / 2018 / 53 minutes

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HOME TRUTH

By April Hayes and Katia Maguire

Filmed over the course of nine years, HOME TRUTH chronicles one family's pursuit of justice, shedding light on how our society responds to domestic violence and how the trauma from domestic violence tragedies can linger throughout generations.

In 1999, Colorado mother Jessica Gonzales experienced every parent's worst nightmare when her three young daughters were killed after being abducted by their father in violation of a domestic violence restraining order. Devastated, Jessica sued her local police department for failing to adequately enforce her restraining order despite her repeated calls for help that night. Determined to make sure her daughters did not die in vain, Jessica pursued her case to the US Supreme Court and an international human rights tribunal, seeking to strengthen legal rights for domestic violence victims. When her legal journey finally achieved widespread national change and she became an acclaimed activist, Jessica struggled to put her life and relationships back together.


DVD (Color) / 2018 / 72 minutes

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THOUSAND GIRLS LIKE ME, A

By Sahra Mani

A THOUSAND GIRLS LIKE ME is an awe-inspiring verite documentary that tells the story of a young Afghan woman's fight for justice after experiencing years of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her father.

Khatera Golzad was brutally raped by her father for thirteen years, resulting in numerous pregnancies, most of which ended in forced abortions. But two reached full term. Despite her many attempts to file charges, neither the Afghan police nor the legal system helped her. In 2014, she appeared on national television to publicly accuse her father, finally succeeding in bringing her case to court despite threats from male relatives and judges who labelled her a liar.

A THOUSAND GIRLS LIKE ME sheds light on the broken Afghan judicial system and the women it seldom protects. In a country where the systematic abuse of girls is rarely discussed, Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani presents a story of one woman's battle against cultural, familial, and legal pressures as she embarks on a mission to set a positive example for her daughter and other girls like her.


DVD (Color) / 2018 / 52 minutes

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TRE MAISON DASAN

Directed by Denali Tiller

An intimate portrait of three boys growing up, each with a parent in prison.

TRE MAISON DASAN is an intimate portrait of three boys growing up, each with a parent in prison. Directly told through the child's perspective, the film is an exploration of relationships and separation, masculinity, and coming of age in America when a parent is behind bars.

Tre, Maison and Dasan are three very different boys. Tre is a spirited 13-year-old who hides his emotions behind a mask of tough talk and hard edges. Maison is a bright eyed 11 year old with an encyclopedic mind and deep love for those around him. Dasan is a sensitive 6 year old with an incredible capacity for empathy and curiosity.

Their parents are not incarcerated for the low-level offenses that have become infamous in conversations around mass incarceration, but their histories and relationships beg many questions about justice and the lasting and rippling effects of a system at large.


DVD / 2018 / (Grades 8-12, College, Adults) / 94 minutes

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LIKE ANY OTHER KID

Directed by Victoria Mills

Follows the intimate relationships between incarcerated youth and staff who use love and structure to guide and teach youth offenders how to take responsibility for themselves.

LIKE ANY OTHER KID provides a rare glimpse into the inner-workings of one of the most promising developments in juvenile justice reform: the use of non-punitive, therapeutic programs to change behavior and help youth re-enter their communities.

Following the intimate relationships between incarcerated youth and staff in three unique facilities across the country over the course of three years, the film shows how these programs work. Based on the Missouri approach, where love and structure - instead of punishment - are used, these programs guide and teach youth how to take responsibility for themselves.

Through scenes of conflict, vulnerability, reflection, commitment, and joy, the youth transform before our eyes. LIKE ANY OTHER KID shows us the great potential of these youth if we let them be just that: like any other kid.


DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 89 minutes

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TRIBAL JUSTICE

Directed by Anne Makepeace

Documents an effective criminal justice reform movement in America: the efforts of tribal courts to return to traditional, community-healing concepts of justice.

TRIBAL JUSTICE is a feature documentary about a little known, underreported but effective criminal justice reform movement in America today: the efforts of tribal courts to create alternative justice systems based on their traditions. In California, the state with the largest number of Indian people and tribes, two formidable Native American women are among those leading the way. Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribe on the northwest coast, and Claudette White, Chief Judge of the Quechan Tribe in the southeastern desert, are creating innovative systems that focus on restoring rather than punishing offenders in order to keep tribal members out of prison, prevent children from being taken from their communities, and stop the school-to-prison pipeline that plagues their young people.

Abby Abinanti is a fierce, lean, elder. Claudette White is younger, and her courtroom style is more conventional in form; but like Abby, her goal is to provide culturally relevant justice to the people who come before her. Observational footage of these judges' lives and work provides the backbone of the documentary, while the heart of the film follows offenders as their stories unfold over time, in and out of court. These other stories unfold over time, engaging viewers with the dedication of the judges, the humanity of the people who come before them, and a vision of justice that can actually work.

Through the film, audiences will gain a new understanding of tribal courts and their role in the survival of Indian people. The film will also inspire those working in the mainstream legal field to consider new ways of implementing problem-solving and restorative justice, lowering our staggering incarceration rates and enabling offenders to make reparations and rebuild their lives.


DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 87 minutes

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TRUE CONVICTION

By Jamie Meltzer

There's a new detective agency in Dallas, run by three exonerated men who all spent decades in prison. Their mission: to free other innocent people still behind bars.

After serving a combined 60 years in prison for crimes they did not commit, three recently exonerated Texans - Christopher Scott, Johnnie Lindsey, and Steven Phillips - join forces to form the unlikeliest of investigative teams, on a mission to help wrongfully convicted prisoners obtain freedom like they did. Scott, a dad, and grandfather, formed House of Renewed Hope to help fight for the gift of "a second chance at life." In True Conviction, brotherly bonds are formed out of shared hardships - lengthy prison sentences in a state that executes more inmates than any other.

Focusing on the cases of Max Soffar, a death row inmate of 35 years who was forced into a triple murder confession as a young man, and Isaiah Hill, sentenced to life in prison on aggravated assault charges after refusing a plea bargain, the trio logs in hundreds of miles digging up fresh evidence on behalf of their incarcerated clients. Through tenacity, hope, and determination these real-life superheroes work together to rebuild broken lives and families as they campaign to fix the criminal justice system while still fighting demons of their own.


DVD / 2017 / 90 minutes

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WHAT DOESN'T KILL ME: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND THE BATTLE FOR CUSTODY

By Rachel Meyrick

Every day, 5 million children in the U.S. experience domestic violence, either as witnesses or victims. Due to a horrific system that favors abusive fathers, a shocking number of mothers who seek to protect their children (and themselves) end up losing them. Most Americans are unaware that an abusive father, who contests custody from a protective mother, will win 70 percent of the time. This bold and provocative film is a long overdue exploration into why the most powerful country in the world is not protecting its most vulnerable mothers and children and thus enabling generations of abusers to continue their abuse.

Along with intimate personal stories, family revelations with hard hitting facts and frank discussions on the child custody issue with feminists, lawyers, judges and domestic violence experts we follow the indomitable 86-year-old Charlotta Harrison, a survivors' advocate who herself survived a 60-year abusive marriage. She speaks hauntingly about the pressures and fears that make it so difficult for women in danger to leave. With Charlotta, we meet women and children who have been separated, silenced, and pushed to extreme methods of escape-and who are fighting back.


DVD (Color) / 2017 / 81 minutes

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INCARCERATING US

Directed by Regan Hines

Exposes America's prison problem and explores various criminal justice reforms.

Incarcerating US exposes America's prison problem and explores ways to unshackle the "land of the free" through vital criminal justice reforms. With 2.3 million people behind bars, the U.S. has the largest prison population in the history of the world.

Through dramatic first-hand accounts, expert testimony, and shocking statistics, Incarcerating US asks fundamental questions about the prison system in America: What is the purpose of prison? Why did our prison population explode in the 1970s? What can make our justice system more just?

The film begins with a brief overview of U.S. prisons and the flawed policies that fueled unprecedented overincarceration. In many cases, these laws exacerbate problems they were designed to solve. Through both empirical evidence and the eyes of those tragically affected by the system for committing minor crimes, we see the failures of two major initiatives: the War on Drugs and mandatory minimum sentences.

Incarcerating US tells the story of America's broken criminal justice system through the eyes of those who created it, those who have suffered through it, and those who are fighting to change it. After decades of failures, now is the time to unshackle the land of the free.


DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 84 minutes

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PROFILED

By Kathleen Foster

Profiled knits the stories of mothers of Black and Latin youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Some of the victims-Eric Garner, Michael Brown-are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods.

Ranging from the routine harassment of minority students in an affluent Brooklyn neighborhood to the killings and protests in Staten Island and Ferguson, Missouri, PROFILED bears witness to the racist violence that remains an everyday reality for Black and Latin people in this country. Moving interviews with victims' family members are juxtaposed with sharply etched analyses by evolutionary biologist, Joseph L.Graves, Jr, (The Race Myth) and civil rights lawyer, Chauniqua D. Young, (Center for Constitutional Rights, Stop and Frisk lawsuit). PROFILED gives us a window on one of the burning issues of our time.


DVD (Color) / 2016 / 52 minutes

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RETURN, THE

Directed by Kelly Duane de la Vega, Katie Galloway

After California's "Three Strikes" law was amended, thousands of lifers were suddenly freed, but re-entry presented problems for the lifers, their families and their communities.

In 2012, California amended its "Three Strikes" law--one of the harshest criminal sentencing policies in the country. The passage of Prop. 36 marked the first time in U.S. history that citizens voted to shorten sentences of those currently incarcerated. Within days the reintegration of thousands of "lifers" was underway.

THE RETURN examines this unprecedented reform through the eyes of those on the front lines--prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down, reentry providers helping navigate complex transitions, and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law. At a moment of reckoning on mass incarceration, what can California's experiment teach the nation?


DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, Adults) / 84 minutes

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TADMOR

By Monika Borgmann and Lokman Slim

Amidst the popular uprising in Syria that began in 2011, a group of former Lebanese detainees of the Assad regime decides to break their long-held silence about the horrific years they spent imprisoned in Tadmor, Palmyra, one of the Syrian government's most dreaded prisons.

They testify publicly about the systematic torture and humiliation they experienced. And to reclaim and overcome this dark chapter in their lives, in TADMOR they recreate the prison in an abandoned school near Beirut. There, and by playing out the roles of both "victims" and "victimizers," they will relive their survival.


DVD (Color) / 2016 / 103 minutes

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IN HIS OWN HOME

Directed by Malini Johar Schueller

IN HIS OWN HOME is a new, critically acclaimed documentary about police racism and campus militarization.

Before Michael Brown and Ferguson, Missouri, the headline-making killing of Trayvon Martin and the death of Eric Garner at the hands of New York City police officers, there was the shocking 2010 shooting of Kofi Adu Brempong, a disabled Ghanaian graduate student attacked by University of Florida campus police responding to a 911 call.

The powerful documentary, IN HIS OWN HOME, recounts the events of that fateful March day and their aftermath: we watch live video of the police attack on Kofi's apartment; we hear accounts of those who marveled at the number of snipers "ready to shoot at any time" as they surrounded the apartment of a lone student, as well as from fellow students who attest to Kofi's peaceful demeanor; and, we hear from police officers who explain how they felt threatened and had to shoot. And, in the aftermath, we bear witness to the administration's shortcomings and the students and community activists who demand justice.

Underlining an ongoing pattern of racism and police brutality, as well as the frightening "militarization" of campuses nationwide, IN HIS OWN HOME speaks to widespread and pervasive issues in our country that will, for the time being, remain among our most controversial and disconcerting.


DVD / 2015 / 31 minutes

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WHEN JUSTICE ISN'T JUST

Director: David Massey

Directed by Oscar-nominated and NAACP Image Award winner David Massey, this dynamic documentary features legal experts, local activists, and law enforcement officers delving into ongoing charges of inequality, unfair practices, and politicized manipulations of America's judicial system. Additionally, the Black Lives Matter movement and citizens nationwide question the staggering number of police shootings of unarmed Black men and women.


DVD / 2015 / 40 minutes

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CULTURED CRIMINAL, THE

By Florin MARKSTEINER

The Cultured Criminal, revisits the 1890 Birchall-Benwell Affair, one of the most sensational murder cases in Canadian history.

The 19th-century Canadian murder case is a dramatized short period piece, which stars Mark Cowling as Reginald Birchall, a dissolute Englishman and Oxford-educated son of a cleric who moved to Ontario after selling off his inheritance to cover his gambling debts.

In 1890, Birchall conned two men into entering a partnership and then killed one, Frederick Benwell (Paul Watson). Birchall apparently intended to slay the other man as well, but failed to carry out the plan. Tried for murder, Birchall was found guilty despite the absence of a confession and was hanged in November 1890.

From a gruesome discovery in the Blenheim Swamp to the trial in Woodstock's Old Town Hall and beyond, the production is highly stylized and a dramatic recreation of the events that shook the quiet nation at the time.

It's short running time lends itself to the style of the film and you may find yourself totally immersed in the true story.


DVD (Black and White) / 2014 / 38 minutes

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BROADMOOR: HISTORY OF THE CRIMINALLY INSANE

Interviews and archives highlight Britain's most notorious criminals and the place they called home.

Leading criminologist, Professor David Wilson, gives an insight into the world of Britain's Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital.

Cameras have been allowed to film inside Broadmoor Hospital for the first time in 150 years as part of a new documentary. The inner workings of the high-security psychiatric hospital, which houses more than 200 men, some of which are the most mentally-ill and disturbed criminals in the UK, are revealed in the dynamic expose.

Out of all the patients, 35 per cent come from prisons, 35 per cent from the court system, a quarter from medium-secure psychiatric units and five per cent from other high-security hospitals. Although the average stay in the hospital I


DVD / 2013 / 46 minutes

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COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS

Directed by Benjamin Franzen

Copyright Criminals examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and (of course) money.

This documentary traces the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multi-billion-dollar industry. For more than thirty years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. When lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a "borrowed melody" became a "copyright infringement."


DVD / 2008 / 54 minutes

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