STATE LEGISLATURE shows the day-to-day activities of the Idaho Legislature during an entire session. Lobbyists, lawmakers and their constituents are seen debating and discussing the concerns of the electorate, on issues that range from violence in schools, mad cow disease and video voyeurism to illegal immigration, secondhand smoke and the deregulation of telephone rates. The film is an example of the achievements, values, constraints and limitations...

This powerful film odyssey across the Mid West explores the mentality change in the Texas justice system from tough-on-crime solutions to the latest smart-on-crime programs that offer second chance to the criminals.. Prison, violence, denial are no longer required to deal with modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. Back in the 1930s, the famous outlaws had no chance to meet with such a justice system. On the contrary, Clyde Barrow who started as a petty thief,...

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 2 takes place in the arraignment, misdemeanor, and injunction courts in Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida. The courts deal with issues such as bail bonds, release pending trial, the specific context of injunctions regulating time and place of parental visits, restraining orders, contact with children, support payments, and the court's decision about fault and punishment. The judges and lawyers ask questions which elicit the stories...

On December 2, 1980 lay missioner Jean Donovan and three American nuns were brutally murdered by members of El Salvador’s security force. This "sensitive, marvelously constructed film"(Catholic New York) chronicles Jean’s life, from her affluent childhood in Connecticut, to her decision to volunteer with the Maryknolls in El Salvador, to her tragic death. An award-winning classic for the ages, Roses in December is both an eloquent memorial to...

The film is a stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions that existed at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. TITICUT FOLLIES documents the various ways the inmates are treated by the guards, social workers and psychiatrists.. "TITICUT FOLLIES is a brilliant work of art…" - Robert Coles, The New Republic. "TITICUT FOLLIES is a great work, a near-masterpiece not just of the documentary form, but of moviemaking...

A film about justice and community healing, hope and transformation. In the Yukon, an innovative program is bringing together a traditional form of Aboriginal justice--circle sentencing--and the Canadian justice system. Sentencing circles don't focus on punishment. Instead, they bring together the perpetrator of a crime, his or her victims, and peers and family in an effort to bring healing to the community.. For many Aboriginal men in the North,...

When a string of disturbing assaults terrorizes Miami in the summer of 2003, the city cries for justice. The police launch a massive investigation, and soon realize they have a serial rapist on their hands. The investigation and apprehension that ensue become one of the most famed manhunts in Miami's history. Now the hunt, capture, and trial of notorious serial rapist Reynaldo Rapalo with some surprising twists and turns along the way are all caught...

An examination into the infamous thirty-year-old cold case behind the disappearance of Iowa paperboy Johnny Gosch, the first missing child to appear on a milk carton.. WHO TOOK JOHNNY focuses on the heartbreaking story of Johnny’s mother, Noreen Gosch, and her relentless quest to find the truth about what happened that tragic September morning in Des Moines when Johnny never returned from his paper route. Along the way, there have been mysterious...

Kimberley Motley left her husband and three kids in the US in order to work as a defence lawyer in Kabul, Afghanistan. Today she is the first and only foreign lawyer who litigates in Afghanistan’s courts.. For over five years now, human rights cases and troubled expats have motivated her to stay, but personal threats and general conditions in the country, make it harder and harder for Kimberly to continue her work.. Winner of the Viewfinders Grand...

A companion to New Day's Power and Control: Domestic Violence in America, the 20-minute film explores best practices in three jurisdictions: Duluth, MN, home of the influential "Duluth Model;" Baltimore, MD, home of an infamously high crime rate; and the South Bronx, the nation's busiest domestic violence patrol area.. Seasoned officers responding to tense, actual domestic calls show how to safely approach a fighting couple, interview, determine primary...