We Support You?

Erin Laine, a filmmaker based in Orlando, FL, journeyed to Krakow, Poland, to see how the war in Ukraine is being portrayed in a country other than here in America.  What she found was that language plays a huge part in how the war is viewed and interpreted.  For example, Russia views Ukraine and Ukrainians as “Little Russians.”  Ukrainians never called themselves that.   The stark reality: Russia has banned the use of the Ukrainian language more than 150 times. For years, Putin-lead Russians have campaigned to make the Ukrainian people feel inferior.

Laine also explores the similarities between how Hitler’s Germany tried to systematically erase a people, and how Putin is attempting to do the same, especially through the use of wide-spread propaganda.

This Doc Short puts a human face on the rising cost of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the small victories that make the Ukrainians struggle bearable.  This war may no longer be top of mind for some people in the US, but it hasn’t ended for those still fighting for their lives and their homeland.

Deciding Vote

In NY in the late 1960’s, hundreds of women died each year from self-inflicted or non-doctor supervised abortions.  Deciding Vote, a documentary directed by Jeremy Workman and Robert J. Lyons, details what happened immediately before and after Democratic Assemblyman George Michaels held to his moral and social conscience and, in 1970, voted to legalize abortion for the women of his state.  With these words, “What’s the use of getting reelected if you don’t stand for something”, he gave women the choice we all deserve; to live our lives as we see fit.  

Michaels’ words certainly enabled the passing of Roe V Wade, because in 1973, abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court, rendering anti-abortion laws in 46 states unconstitutional.  

For the two weeks following NY State vote, which was signed into law by Governor Rockefeller, the screaming anti-abortionist minority hounded Congressman Michaels.   After that, they went silent.  More importantly, for decades, women whose lives benefitted from his bold move, never stopped sending letters in thanks.

50 years later, with the dissolution of RvW, history is repeating itself; unfortunately, the loudest minority voices are now back in control, deciding the fate of women across the country, as well as overseas in our military.  It remains to be seen how much of our country will be able to negate the angertainment-driven voice of the religious minority, for a second time.

Split Jury is a case study about restorative justice.  in Oregon in 2001, Tacuma Jackson was convicted of first-degree robbery and kidnapping, but the jury decision was not unanimous.  At the time, only two states allowed non-unanimous convictions, Louisiana and Oregon.   In 2020, SCOTUS ruled that nonunanimous juries are unconstitutional of any felony short of murder.  So would people who were now considered to have been unconstitutionally jailed and released have their records retroactively cleared?

This documentary explores the facts.  Twenty-five years ago, many of the courtroom decisions were anti-immigrant, anti-black, anti-Jewish.  Unfortunately, in 2023 in many states, history is repeating itself.  Extreme right wing Governors are once again looking backwards in an attempt to control the legal narrative. 

For example, in 2023, Governor DeSantis of Florida created an “election task force”, assigned to hunt down ex-felons who have been led to believe they have had their ability to legally vote returned to them.  The majority of these cases are prosecutions of  people of color. Though the Governor has forced the courts to prosecute these cases, many are found by justices to be without merit. An important film that should be seen by anyone currently fighting openly racist governmental decisions. For Tacuma, and the thousands like him, justice delayed is justice denied.