False Confessions
A film by Katrine Philp
Defense attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen exposes the dark side of the American justice system
Denmark/Germany | 2019 | 91 minutes | Color | DVD | English | Order No. W191243 |
SYNOPSIS
FALSE CONFESSIONS follows four cases of defense attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, including that of Korey Wise who was only sixteen when he was manipulated into a false confession in the infamous Central Park Jogger case, as she fights to put an end to an institutionalized injustice. Examining the complex tactics law enforcement agencies across the U.S. use to coerce false confessions, the film looks at the psychological aspect of how people end up confessing to crimes they have not committed as well as the consequences of these confessions – for those accused, for their families and for society.
On the heels of the difficult and critically important national conversation sparked by Ava Duvernay's miniseries about The Central Park Five, FALSE CONFESSIONS is an urgent in-depth look at the dark side of the American justice system that goes even further into investigating the social, racial and legal issues at stake.
PRESS
"A legal thriller from start to finish, FALSE CONFESSIONS shines a critical light on the dirty tactics that defy reason and betray our nation’s moral compass and path to real justice. Is the police force here to serve and protect, or to exploit and imprison?"
"FALSE CONFESSIONS is shedding new light on the highly questionable, little-debated dark underbelly of the American justice system."
"This important new documentary will help to spread understanding of the very real phenomenon of false confessions and help us to understand why they happen and what we can do about them."
"Captivating, haunting. A devastating emotional journey."
"This documentary is necessary. It’s important that we as a people understand where, why, and how our freedom can be ripped from underneath us."
SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS
- Documentary Special Jury Award for Excellence in Social Justice Storytelling, LA Film Festival
- Politiken Audience Award, CPH:DOX
- Doc NYC
- Salem Film Festival
- Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival
- Zurich Film Festival
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Katrine Philp
Katrine Philp was born in Denmark in 1978. She studied Film Production Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and later graduated as a documentary director from the National Film School of Denmark in 2009. Her graduation film BOOK OF MIRI was nominated for Best Student Award at IDFA and won the President's Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the European Young CIVIS Media Prize in Germany.
Philp's debut film DANCE FOR ME (2012) screened at IDFA and won the Audience Award at the American Documentary Film Festival. In 2015 the film was nominated for an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Arts and Culture category. Her film HOME SWEET HOME competed in the Kids & Docs competition at IDFA and won a Danish Academy Award (Robert Prize) in 2016.
In 2014 Philp established the documentary production company Good Company Pictures with directors Kasper Astrup Schröder, Boris Bertram and producer Katrine A. Sahlstrøm.
RELATED LINKS
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Jane Fisher’s Website
Website for the Law Offices of Fisher & Bryialsen, PLLC
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Twitter
Follow the film on Twitter
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MSNBC
Ghosts of the 1989 Central Park jogger case: Attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen talks about what happened after the convictions for the Central Park Five, the five men jailed for years for rape, were ultimately overturned.
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Innocence Project – Korey Wise Central Park 5
More information about Korey Wise's case and ways to help others with similar situations.
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Wrongful Convictions Blog
Read more about wrongful convictions and the exoneration process
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Aljazeera: False Confessions: How Innocent People Confess to Crime in the US
The tactics used during interrogation to make people confess to crimes they didn't commit explained.
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Four Wives – One Man
From Nahid Persson, the filmmaker of the award-winning Prostitution Behind the Veil, comes an intimate portrait of a polygamist family in a rural Iranian village. Persson reveals the intricacies of the relationships between the four wives, their husband, their astoundingly free-spoken mother-in-law and their numerous children. Sometimes humorous and often heartbreaking, this film follows the daily lives of the wives whose situation has turned them into both bitter rivals and co-conspirators against their abusive husband.
Persson’s camera unobtrusively and beautifully captures the range of the family’s interactions – from peaceful, pastoral scenes of a family picnic, to the temporary chaos caused by a broken faucet in the kitchen, to a furtive, whispered conversation between two wives about the latest beating. The women’s work – making bread, weaving carpets, milking and herding the sheep – provide the background to their frank conversations. Avoiding sensationalism and sentimentality, this film provides unique insights into the practice of polygamy and its effect on the women involved.
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