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- 'Our procedure has been always haunted by the ghost of the innocent man convicted. It is an unreal dream.' - Justice Learned Hand, 1923. The prospect of unjust imprisonment is a plight both easily imagined and terrifying, and we all wonder how we might fare in such a grim circumstance. No case in modern America illuminates this condition more completely than the story of Michael Morton. In 1986, his young wife was brutally murdered in front of their only child, and he was accused and convicted of the crime, spending a quarter century in Texas prisons. His unreal dream was and is a powerful journey through despair and abandonment to a greater freedom than most of us know, but all can appreciate.
- THE LEAST OF THESE explores one of the most controversial aspects of American immigration policy: family detention. As part of the Bush administration policy to end what they termed the "catch and release" of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings. The facility was initially activated with little media attention or public knowledge. Soon, however, immigration attorney Barbara Hines was contacted by detainees seeking representation, and she became increasingly concerned about the troubling conditions there. She joined forces with Vanita Gupta of the ACLU and Michelle Brané of the Women's Refugee Commission to investigate conditions and seek changes. Their efforts were initially hampered by a lack of openness and oversight within the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) organization. Undeterred, the three attorneys attempted to bring about changes in both policy and conditions, by making their findings public, encouraging involvement by activists and the media, and ultimately by filing a historic lawsuit. As these events unfold, the film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role (and limits) of community activism in bringing change. The film leads viewers to consider how core American rights and values - due process, presumption of innocence, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort - should apply to immigrants, particularly children.
- Josh and Omar were the best of friends. Yet when they join rival dance crews, the bonds of friendship start breaking in their battle for redemption, identity and respect.
- Talented boxer Jesus Chavez finds his rise to the world championship cut short when he is deported to Mexico for a youthful crime in his past. Back in the country he left as a child, Jesus faces two new battles: the fight for the right to return to his family and career in the U.S., and the struggle to find acceptance in the country of his birth.