Bay Area Kossacks – If you get a chance go and check out the award winning doc “Crime After Crime”. It’s showing Aug 6 at the Elmood in Berkely , all week long. I got a chance to catch its premiere at the Roxie in San Francisco where director Yoav Potash did a great Q & A with the audience.
I had the emotional experience of working on the film, off and on, for more than three years. I shot some of the prison footage, and some of the lawyer’s office footage. Even though I was present for much of the shooting, and knew Deborah’s story – I was still riveted by her story as it unfolded on the screen.
The trailer link is below the fold.
The official trailer is located here
Official HD Trailer for CRIME AFTER CRIME
While the story of Deborah Peagler is definitely a tale of the tragedies and horrors of domestic abuse, the film is really a spotlight on the horrors of the justice system being manipulated for political purposes. The current budget cuts to the judicial system will only make it harder for overworked courts to take on cases such as Deborah’s.
The documentary was an official selection for the 2011 Sundance Festival, and won numerous awards including Audience Choice and Best Investigative Doc at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The San Francisco Chronicle review in part;
Schedule of Screenings
Director Yoav Potash's labor of love chronicles the fate of Debbie Peagler, a Los Angeles-area woman who was incarcerated in 1983 (after being threatened by prosecutors with the death penalty) for her somewhat vague connection to the murder of ex-boyfriend Oliver Wilson, who had repeatedly beaten her, forced her into prostitution and sexually abused their daughter.
About two decades later, as Peagler still languishes at Chowchilla, land-use attorneys Joshua Safran and Nadia Costa (galvanized by a new state law that factors domestic abuse into appeals) take up her case pro bono, with the help of private investigator Bobby Buechler.
The numerous twists and turns that follow never fail to be engrossing, whether it's the astonishing revelations of wrongdoing in the justice system, or the personal stories of those fighting against it.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...
It was picked up by Oprah Winfrey for the Oprah Winfrey Network, and will be part of the OWN Documentary Club screenings this fall.