spoke digital films

Jon Burge, the ringleader of the Chicago Police Department’s history of Abu-Ghraib sytle torture from the 1970’s to the 1990’s, has been arrested and charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.  (I have embedded the trailer to Shielded Brutality below, which is the documentary I’ve been producing documenting this history.)

From chicagobreakingnews.com:
Retired Chicago police Cmdr. Jon [...]

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(The following video was produced for MTV’s Choose or Lose Street Team ‘08. I work with this program as an independent journalist covering issues in Tennessee. The video was originally posted on think.mtv.com here: )
In Nashville, a small but dedicated group of anti-war activists took to the streets in downtown’s honky tonk district (and there [...]

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In the second part of this story, two Iraq veterans from Tennessee discuss their frustration with the lack of coverage the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are getting. They are both members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, but show strong support for their colleagues still fighting overseas (as well as the innocent civilians caught in the struggle).

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I recently spoke with two young veterans from the Iraq war. In this piece, they discuss their disillusionment with the war and their reasons for becoming involved with Iraq Veterans Against the War. This is the first of a two part series.

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I caught up with a father/daughter activist team in Nashville who are working to ensure that Tennessee elections are safe, fair, and reliable. They are members of a group, Gathering To Save Our Democracy, who have finally gotten the attention of Tennessee legislators.

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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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Gus Puryear is the top attorney for the world’s largest private prison company. He also belongs to a Nashville country club with allegedly discriminatory practices regarding women and, possibly, minorities. Will those two facts keep him from being a federal judge? One former prisoner and activist certainly hopes so.

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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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Some important developments have occurred since the new year, including a $20 settlement with four torture victims. We can only hope this is the beginning of further moves towards real justice for victims and their families. I hope that this film can play some part in working towards that justice and preventing future abuses. I am still hoping for a date of completion by the end of this Summer.

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Before January gets too far along, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the year past, especially as it relates to the making of my film, Shielded Brutality. In short, last year was hugely successful, and ended on the great note of two and half years of hard work coming together successfully. But before I get to that, let me quickly recap what was accomplished. Here are some of the people I was fortunate enough to film interviews with over the past year discussing the Burge history and criminal justice reform in general.

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