Documentary Educational Resources - Subject / Politics, Law & Justice / Criminal Justice / All Films

Pittsburgh Police Series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Pittsburgh Police Series
Buy Now: $1,895.00

The Pittsburgh Police series offers a raw and often intimate window into policing during a time before the War on Drugs and subsequent militarization of the police.

Produced in the late 1960s, the project was sponsored by the Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence at Brandeis University in an attempt to study police conduct in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In spite of the racially tense climate in the city, following civil disorders in which 2,000 people were arrested (although no one was killed), permission to film was granted by the Director of Public Safety and by each Station's Inspector. The films were intended for use by law schools, community relations projects, sociology and urban studies programs, and by the police themselves, to provoke discussion about policing practices.

Marshall accompanied Pittsburgh Police officers over a nine month period of time between 1968 and 1969 as they responded to calls in the community. Individual officers provided access to their everyday work, allowing Marshall to ride in the back of their squad cars and film their interactions with community members. Marshall's footage was edited into seventeen films falling into three categories. Some of the films such as After the Game and A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding are short films that focus on single sequences and events within the project. Other films such as 901/904 and Inside/Outside Station 9 are longer films made up of a variety of these sequences with the intent to give off an overall impression of police work. The third category of films within the series are educational films, such as The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule and Investigation of a Hit and Run with Legal Discussion, which consist of clips of Marshall's footage intercut with discussion and analysis of the footage.

In Pittsburgh, sequences shown to recruits in training and to off-duty officers provoked lively discussions about the conduct and decisions made by police officers in the actual filmed events. Opinions were often divided on particular cases, as well as on the basic issue of police roles. Recruits and officers argued about the extent to which the police must function as "social workers", becoming involved in domestic situations, and about their biases about men and women. "We always believe the woman and arrest the guy," said one policeman. Several years later, the Department and individual policemen were invited to participate in the discussion film, The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule, but the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association would not allow participation. The Pittsburgh Police Department now has copies of most of these films, all of which have been shown to Department members.

John Marshall and Emile de Brigard wrote in their 1973 article "Idea and Event in Urban Film" that "In its capacity as an eyewitness report, film is an experience. The object of using film is to untangle impressions, to analyze the facts and implications of an event." The films in The Pittsburgh Police series remain powerful documents for reflecting on society then and now and allow for potent discussions about the place of police within communities as well as issues and biases within the criminal justice system.

The films may be grouped into several clusters that address various dimensions of these broad issues:

The Job: These films focus on the variety and ambiguity of police roles. (A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding; Vagrant Woman; Nothing Hurt But My Pride; Youth and the Man of Property; Inside/Outside Station Nine)

Searches and Seizures: Fourth Amendment issues are addressed in these films. (Three Domestics; Wrong Kid; After the Game)

Asking Questions: Fifth Amendment issues are at stake in situations in these films. (Investigation of a Hit and Run; The Informant; The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule)

Public Places: These films dramatize the issues of civic order versus civil liberties, of public versus private. (You Wasn't Loitering; Henry is Drunk)

The films in this series lend themselves especially well to analytical treatments in "clusters" such as these, since many are short sequences and none are narrated. The groupings suggested here represent examples, and numerous other combinations can be constructed in order to explore and illustrate particular themes.

Eleven of these films are also available on the Pittsburgh Police Shorts DVD, a 2007 re-mastered/authored set which also contains additional information about the series.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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Evolution of Violence

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Evolution of Violence
Buy Now: $320.00

Evolution of Violence asks how violence becomes interwoven into the fabric of a society. Profiles and interviews reveal how individual lives are shaped by ongoing atrocities. Journalists wait to report on the next murder victim, a social worker helps the relatives of women who have been killed, former rebels mourn their comrades, and a war criminal has nightmares about all the things he's done.

While offering a profile of the ongoing violence in today's society, the film looks to historical events — told through the use of archival footage — from Guatemala's colonial history and place in the global banana trade, to the roots of its 36-year civil war, to try to understand how a culture of violence is created.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Nominee, Austrian Film Prize, "Best Documentary"
In Between the Seas Competition, Jihlava

Festival del Film Locarno – Semaine de la Critique
Muestra de Cine Europeo, Segovia
FIPATEL, Biarritz
Diagonale, Graz
DocuDays, Kiev
Doha - Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival
Muestra de Cine Internacional, Guatemala
Internationales Film Festival, Innsbruck
Open City Docs Festival, London
Document 10, Glasgow
Mar del Plata Film Festival

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Death Row

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Death Row
Buy Now: $320.00

Death Row is a film about daily life on Death Row in Texas. When the film was made in March 1979, 114 men were housed in the special death cells of Ellis prison's rows J-21 and J-23. The men spend their time waiting for the State to kill them or fighting as hard as they can to prevent that death from happening. Their hardest job is staying sane.

There is less to do on Death Row than any other kind of prison. Except for four hours a week, the men are constantly locked in small one-man cells. Few outsiders visit the Row, and those who do never stay very long. The Row is the least known of all our prisons. The film is about how men get by on the Row, how they fill the years between fixing of a death sentence by a judge and ultimate resolution in freedom, commutation or death by lethal injection. Some of the condemned men discuss their relationships with their families and attorneys; they describe how they keep from going crazy; they talk about the waiting.

The film depicts the few physical actions that barely break the monotony of life on the Row: food service with trays slid under cell doors, haircuts, domino games in the small day room, chess games on boards suspended between two cells by strips of cloth, manufacture of picture frames from cigarette pack and tobacco wrappers, reading lawbooks, watching television... Other comments on the Row are offered by a medical office, a guard, and a convict porter. The filmmakers had unsupervised access to the Row. No guard or other official was in the cells when they were doing the filming and interviewing. No other documentary film shows this otherwise hidden territory in the American criminal justice system. It would be impossible to make such a film now.

Jackson and Christian did a companion book, also titled Death Row (Beacon, 1980), which will soon be reissued with photographs and a new introduction. The book consists primarily of longer conversations with the men who speak in the fiim. Death Row was funded by grants from the American Film Institute, the Polaroid Foundation, the Playboy Foundation and the Levi Strauss Foundation. The digital restoration was funded by University at Buffalo's Baldy Center for Law and Society and Samuel P. Capen Chair in American Culture.

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Freedom Never Dies

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Freedom Never Dies
Buy Now: $320.00

On Christmas night 1951, Harry T. Moore and his wife Harriette retired to bed in their white frame house tucked inside a small orange grove in Mims, Florida. Ten minutes later, a bomb shattered their house, their lives, and any notions that the South’s post-war transition to racial equality would be a smooth one. Harry Moore died that night, his wife nine days later. Harry T. Moore paved the way for the ‘60s civil rights movement by championing equal pay for black teachers, organizing the black vote and publicly condemning racist attitudes and actions of local, state and national officials. Despite a massive FBI investigation and repeated inquisitions, the murders of Harry and Harriette Moore have never been solved.

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A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:52:00 GMT

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding
Buy Now: $340.00

Policemen intervene when a woman calls to complain that her boyfriend stole forty dollars. The argument soon escalates as the man refuses to admit that he took any money, and the woman, losing her temper, crashes a glass window and cuts her hand. The police try their best to diffuse the situation and eventually take the woman away from the scene.

This film is included on the Pittsburgh Police Short Films DVD collection.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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Henry Is Drunk

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:27:00 GMT

Henry Is Drunk
Buy Now: $340.00

Pittsburgh police observe a man's questionable driving pattern and request him to leave his car and take a cab. This film is included on the Pittsburgh Police 11 Shorts DVD collection.

This film is included on the Pittsburgh Police Short Films DVD collection.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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Inside/Outside Station 9

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

Inside/Outside Station 9
Buy Now: $340.00

A number of short sequences show some of the events and people in the daily lives of several policemen: their intervention in domestic quarrels, the handling of a hit-and-run case, the approaches taken toward loitering youths, a drunk and disorderly charge being made in Magistrate's Court, and the interrogation of a burglary suspect. Police force candidates are shown being interviewed by members of the police department. They discuss their reasons for wanting to be policemen and their thoughts about themselves and their jobs, placing the film in the context of the community from which the department draws its personnel.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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The Informant

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:45:00 GMT

The Informant
Buy Now: $295.00

This film focuses on a black burglary suspect who, during interrogation by police offers his services as an "undercover" informant - providing the police will suppress his charge.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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Manifold Controversy

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:49:00 GMT

Manifold Controversy
Buy Now: $340.00

A customer tries to explain to police why he feels he has been cheated out of an exhaust system by a garage owner.

This film is included on the Pittsburgh Police Short Films DVD collection.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Three Domestics

Twenty One Dollars or Twenty One Days

Youth and the Man of Property

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Nothing Hurt But My Pride

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:11:00 GMT

Nothing Hurt But My Pride
Buy Now: $340.00

This film consists of several sequences related to arrests after street fights involving policemen, and discussions of the incidents by the police in cars and at the station.

This film is included on the Pittsburgh Police Short Films DVD collection.

Films in the Pittsburgh Police series

901/904

After the Game

A Forty Dollar Misunderstanding

The 4th and 5th and the Exclusionary Rule

Henry is Drunk

The Informant

Inside/Outside Station Nine

Investigation of a Hit and Run w/ Legal Discussion

Manifold Controversy

Nothing Hurt But My Pride