BRIAN BANKS is an earnest film that hits all the necessary and expected plot points as it makes its cogent indictment of the criminal justice system. It never becomes a screed, though the based-on-a-true story of 16-year-old who ended up serving time for a rape he didn’t commit certainly has all the elements to support… Read More »
TRIAL BY FIRE — Ed Zwick Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. A film like TRIAL BY FIRE provokes a host of questions about the justice system and the ethics of capital punishment. When I spoke with Ed Zwick on April 15, 2019, those inevitably came up as we discussed adapting the true story of Cameron Todd Willingham’s murder conviction, and… Read More »
LAST DAY OF FREEDOM — Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman Interview
Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman are first-time filmmakers whose short film, LAST DAY OF FREEDOM, has been short-listed for the Oscars™. The hand-drawn animation tells the story of Bill Babbitt and his beloved brother Manny, two men who were let down by the system in which they placed their trust. When Bill realizes that Manny… Read More »
Michod, David — ANIMAL KINGDOM
Writer/director David Michod edited “Inside Film” magazine and made short films in preparation for his feature film debut, ANIMAL KINGDOM. The short films wowed Sundance a few years back, and this year, so did ANIMAL KINGDOM, a gritty film about a family of criminals in Melbourne, Australia, and the estranged, traumatized grandson and nephew, J,… Read More »
Brett Morgen and the CHICAGO 10
The Yippies at the 1968 Democratic Convention gave themselves body and soul to protesting the injustice. The same can be said of Brett Morgen’s determination to make his documentary about the riots and the trial that resulted from them more than just a look back at an interesting moment in American history. When I spoke to him on February 21, 2008, the relevance of those… Read More »