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MOVIES / ON DVD / AFTER INNOCENCE
After Innocence

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After Innocence (2005)

91%
100%
75%
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91 %
Reviews Counted: 46 Fresh: 42  Rotten:4 Average Rating: 7.3/10
 
Consensus: This understated yet emotionally devastating documentary lets the stories of its subjects speak for themselves. This understated yet emotionally devastating documentary lets the stories of its subjects speak for themselves. more
 
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Synopsis:
After Innocence tells the dramatic and compelling story of the exonerated - innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The film focuses on the gripping story of seven men and their emotional journey back into society and... [More]
After Innocence tells the dramatic and compelling story of the exonerated - innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The film focuses on the gripping story of seven men and their emotional journey back into society and efforts to rebuild their lives. Included are a police officer, an army sergeant and a young father sent to prison and even death row for decades for crimes they did not commit. The men are thrust back into society with little or no support from the system that put them behind bars. While the public views exonerations as success stories - wrongs that have been righted - After Innocence shows that the human toll of wrongful imprisonment can last far longer than the sentences served. The film raises basic questions about human rights and society’s moral obligation to the exonerated and places a spotlight on the flaws in our criminal justice system that lead to wrongful conviction of the innocent. The film features exonerees Dennis Maher of Lowell, MA, Calvin Willis of Shreveport, LA, Scott Hornoff of Cranston, RI, Wilton Dedge of Cocoa Beach, FL, Vincent Moto of Philadelphia, PA, Nick Yarris of Philadelphia, PA, and Herman Atkins of Los Angeles, CA. It also features Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, founders of The Innocence Project which has helped to exonerate some of the more than 160 people freed through the use of post-conviction DNA testing in the last decade, and highlights the work of human rights activist Dr. Lola Vollen, co-founder of the Life After Exoneration Program. After Innocence, the first feature film about the exonerated, reflects the public's heightened interest in, and fascination with the astonishing stories of the innocent and wrongfully convicted. Recent works on similar themes are the critically received off-Broadway play "The Exonerated," the award-winning photo book "The Innocents" by acclaimed photographer Taryn Simon, recent new books such as Helen Prejean's (Dead Man Walking) "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions," "Actual Innocence" by Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld and Jim Dwyer, and "Bloodsworth: The True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA" by Tim Junkin, and numerous magazine stories about the exonerated and the men and women working to free the innocent. --© Official Site [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Director: Jessica Sanders

DVD Info

Release:

Jun 2, 2007

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • Letterboxed

Audio:

  • (unspecified) - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Deleted Scenes
  • Featurettes - 1. "Pearl Jam Live Performance"
  • 2. Live Footage from Premieres
  • Interviews
  • Trailers -Theatrical Trailer

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Full Review | Comment
06/24/06 04:03 AM
Time Out
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Full Review | Comment
08/16/07 03:16 AM
Geoff Andrew
Time Out New York
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An advertorial rather than a solid piece of investigative journalism.

Full Review | Comment
03/01/07 03:39 AM
Maria Garcia
Film Journal International
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Documentary shines a scientific spotlight on the criminal justice system's dirty little secret via ten tragic cases of mistaken identity, each an unfortunate rush to judgment.

Full Review | Comment
02/05/07 06:45 PM
Kam Williams
WBAI Web Radio
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Both sorrowful and uplifting.

Full Review | Comment
06/15/06 03:27 PM
Laura Kelly
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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A rough but engrossing sketch of what freedom feels like, and what it costs, for seven men who've endured that national nightmare.

Full Review | Comment
05/12/06 03:15 AM
Jonathan Kiefer
Sacramento News & Review
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The scope of the problem, with likely thousands of innocent people incarcerated thanks mostly to errant eyewitness testimony, should give pause to anyone who thinks that life is as simple as black and white, innocent and guilty.

Full Review | Comment
04/07/06 02:20 PM
Marc Mohan
Oregonian
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After Innocence is a crusading documentary driven by DNA testing that's brought freedom for men who served years in prison for crimes they didn't commit.

Full Review | Comment
03/24/06 01:26 PM
Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle
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Eye-opening.

Full Review | Comment
03/16/06 05:31 PM
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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You'll probably like it and wish it were better.

Full Review | Comment
03/09/06 02:34 PM
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press
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Despite its flaws After Innocence raises staggering questions about virtually every aspect of the criminal-justice system.

Full Review | Comment
03/04/06 04:03 AM
Marrit Ingman
Austin Chronicle
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This is no-frills filmmaking and may be a little talky, but it's also very well-made, powerful stuff, and it should be seen by anyone who has questions about the American justice system.

Full Review | Comment
03/03/06 03:45 PM
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
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After Innocence is, without making it overly obvious, anti-death penalty on the grounds that a just society cannot afford to make any mistakes that we cannot attempt to rectify.

Full Review | Comment
03/03/06 02:56 PM
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
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[The] stories of injustice and perseverence [will] stick in the memory after watching this uncluttered and compelling film.

Full Review | Comment
03/03/06 11:07 AM
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune
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...terrific agitprop journalism/analysis...

Full Review | Comment
02/27/06 09:07 PM
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat
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Sanders has an important message, unfortunately diluted by unimaginative shooting and insufficient editing.

Full Review | Comment
02/11/06 03:56 AM
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan
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Informative (we learn, for example, that exonerees are generally given no follow-up assistance upon release, as parolees are) and deeply moving.

Full Review | Comment
02/10/06 01:38 PM
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times
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Not a special pleader but is fairly special, because Sanders gives it the pressure of straight moral conviction.

Full Review | Comment
02/10/06 01:37 PM
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune
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The embittered men make fascinating subjects. Although innocent, they have been deeply scarred by their prison years.

Full Review | Comment
02/09/06 06:42 PM
Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Each lost face in the documentary is a burning reminder of the human toll when our justice system succumbs to its imperfections.

Full Review | Comment
02/03/06 02:30 PM
Michael Booth
Denver Post
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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