Murder on a Sunday Morning
US, 2000, 35mm, color, 88 min.
On May 7, 2000, at a Ramada Inn in Jacksonville, Florida, sixty-five-year-old Mary Ann Stephens was shot in the head before her husband’s eyes. Arrested two and a half hours later after being identified by the victim’s husband, fifteen-year-old Brenton Butler signed a confession. The investigators, the media, and the public are ready to sentence Brenton Butler before he even gets to trial—but not Patrick McGuinness and Ann E. Finnell, the public defenders assigned to represent him. The lawyers uncover startling evidence that raises doubts about the entire police investigation. This real-life courtroom drama raises disturbing questions about race and the American justice system.
PRECEDED BY
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Morning Breath
Directed by Brin Hill.
US, 2001, 35mm, color, 17 min.
Brooklynite Devon spends his time hustling with friends to make ends meet, but a rare ability for insight sets him apart from his peers and forms the basis for his unlikely relationship with Tawney—a girl who can get down in the neighborhood but has aspirations to an existence outside her man’s limited universe. NYU-trained director Hill has won numerous awards for his short work.
