Chicago Film Fest – Day Two

Film #1 – The Trials of Darryl Hunt. This movie gets zero stars for artfulness, but lots of stars for telling a story that needs to be told. I’m pretty familiar with exonerated prisoners since I was reading up on that for awhile - the facts are so mind-boggling and the racist details are so similar from case to case, they start to blur together. This documentary tells the story of Darryl Hunt, a black man who was convicted in 1984 for the rape and murder of a white woman in North Carolina. The crime was horrible, to be sure, but the only eyewitnesses the prosecution had were 1. A multiple felon who called in testimony under a false name and 2. Two Klansmen. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, and he had witnesses testifying to his whereabouts during the time in question. The jury was all white. Needless to say, the next two hours is a depressing look at how disgustingly racist people can be, and how the judicial system truly is stacked against certain people, namely African Americans and economically disadvantaged people. Luckily he had a lot of people fighting for him the entire time, including his original state-appointed defense lawyer, and the case crawled all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. By the time the DNA evidence was tested retroactively, proving that Hunt was not the rapist, the film travels to a point way beyond farce. At this point the prosecution started arguing that just because Hunt didn’t “deposit semen” in the victim didn’t mean he wasn’t involved. It took a random linking of a similar case and the willing admission of the true perpetrator for Darryl Hunt to finally be pardoned and released from prison.
So, to sum up: The movie is not a great one, and consists of super-grainy footage and bizarre POV shots that are inserted for no discernible reason. This movie is important just for the fact that it brings the case more attention. While leaving during the credits, Darryl Hunt passed me in the hallway (there was a panel discussion afterwards). I did smile at him, but felt odd… what was I supposed to say, “Bummer about you being cooped up in prison for 19 years by a bunch of racist assholes. Oopsie!”



Film #2 – Azuloscurocasinegro, i.e. Dark Blue Almost Black (with no spaces, for no reason). This was a cute movie filmed in Madrid. Very entertaining, good use of music, nice plot and characters, etc. Nothing outstanding, but worth watching. It was put together better than most Spanish films, to put it that way (I’m not talking about you, Almodovar!)