Crime + Punishment
Directed by Steven Maing
USA | 2018 | Documentary | 112 min
Film Source: The Film Collaborative
Awards / premier festivals: Sundance – Special Jury Prize for Social Impact
Sponsor: ACLU of Vermont
*Followed by Q&A with James Duff Lyall, Executive Director of the ACLU of Vermont*
Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Social Impact at the Sundance Film Festival, Stephen Maing’s tough, riveting documentary chronicles the struggles of a group of whistleblower cops in New York City as they fight back against the now illegal arrest quotas they are still pressured to enact. Although the film realistically assesses the intractable problems of achieving a color-blind justice, we also get an insider’s view of the complexity of corruption in the criminal-justice system and experience the inspiring courage of those inside the system who fight back with some success. Shot between 2014 and 2017, the film’s events proceed against the backdrop of higher-profile national events such as the killing of Eric Garner and the release of the Justice Department’s Ferguson Report, which detailed the way police in that Missouri city became armed tax collectors preying mostly on nonwhite citizens. ~ AM