1st Watch |
Documentaries RankedThis is fantastic. There are practically no negatives about the mini-series. I watched this in a civics class and even though I had to take notes, I'm almost kind of glad we had to. This was so good that not paying attention to it would be disgraceful.
Other than the political aspects, Jenner Furst produced some of the finest direction I've ever seen. It's usually hard to make me visibly frustrated about something, but Jenner's direction produced such a depressing tone that it was impossible for me not to be agitated on how Kalief was treated. You can feel the direction in the sound design, the editing, the cinematography... you can feel it in everything. However, the most important part of the direction is that it made me care. I'll take about this later on in the political portion of this review.
The sound design was phenomenal. It was dark and it was loud at times. The sound design symbolized how overwhelmed Kalief was. The soundtrack enforced this; it was depressing just like everything else in the series.
The editing is what ties this all together. The series doesn't follow a linear order. Instead, it's more about Kalief remembering horrifying flashbacks about his life. The editing was crucial in the sound. Whenever the scenario got more intense, the more intense aspects of the sound design were present. There was always a great use of overlapping sounds too. It added to how overwhelmed Kalief was during his time in solitary. In terms of the clips that would be used, the team of this mini-series did a perfect job. They included the perfect mixture of past-clips, interview clips, audio-clips, "cinematic-clips" (that were used to give us a sense of imagery on what happened without using actual clips), and so much more. This resulted in phenomenal pacing and an engaging story. I was never once bored or waiting to find out "what's next."
Okay, here's the political part of this review so here is your warning... I mentioned earlier that the direction emphasized the emotion. Kalief's story alone is heartbreaking. He basically received a death sentence because of racial profiling. He didn't do anything wrong, and even if he did steal the backpack, the severity of Kalief's treatment far exceeded the crime. An innocent man was denied his basic constitutional rights because of loopholes in the system. "A right to a fair and speedy trial." "A right" my ass. The film did a beautiful job at explaining this, but what's so sad is that nobody cared about Kalief. The justice system doesn't care what happens to the people involved or they would willingly keep wrongful people locked up. They always try to make the people's situation just as terrible as it can possibly happen. Set a bail nobody could pay. Wait for the trail so the defendant can be charged as an adult rather than a kid. Take the plea deal so you will always have a criminal record. Use loopholes to make sure that under-aged people who are convicted without even a witness still remain in the most violent prison in the United States. It's ironic that we call it the justice system. It's complete bullshit.
This film also highlights the racism in America, which includes the police. When the Hispanic got his backpack stolen, the police didn't care enough to write a report or even check the cameras which could've easily identified the culprit. Instead, they relied on an unreliable witness's claim that Kalief was the burglar. The Hispanic victim just picked a random black person and said that's the culprit. The victim switched up the dates many different times, which would normally be a red flag but
since the victim and the culprit are both not white, who the hell cares. When I first heard that black people were being randomly stopped and checked for fraudulent activity from time to time in the Bronx, I was sadly not even shocked, as if I'm expecting the police to treat every non-white American as a criminal. Actually, it happened a lot of times to a lot of people. According to the film, it was almost routine. ROUTINE!!?? How does something so obscure become ROUTINE!!
This film is a call out for systemic change from the brutality and unfairness of the justice system. Things need to change. We aren't a third-world country; we are among the most powerful nations in the world yet we're still too stupid to understand that our antics are wrong.
In summary, the filmmaking was flawless and it was a tsunami of emotion. Its political incentives were crucially important and I'm glad Kalief's story got shared with us.
