spoke digital films

This quietly engaging film chronicles a retired Texas pastor who worked as a prison chaplain for fifteen years. Part of Pastor Pickett’s job was to counsel convicts on Death Row, though his responsibilities went further than that. One of Pickett’s duties was to counsel the men on the days leading up to their execution and make certain they wouldn’t fight as they were led to the gurney to be strapped down for lethal injection.

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Recently, the New York Times reported about a Pew Research Center study indicating that 1 in 99 American adults are behind bars, our country’s highest rate ever. I decided to do some research about the role private prisons play in the economics and politics of this development.

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In short, the film describes a war implemented with a profound lack of planning seemingly guided only by a toxic mixture of arrogance, naivete, and an unwillingness to face realities that conflicted with the blind faith of Neo-Con architects. So, it rarely tells us anything we don’t already know, but it combines impressive access to key figures, strong imagery from the war, and taut storytelling to deliver an important record of history.

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