False Confessions

WATCH TRAILER

False Confessions

A film by Katrine Philp

Defense attorney Jane Fisher-Byrialsen exposes the dark side of the American justice system

License:

Format:

PRICE:

Host a screening

Watch on Kanopy

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?"

Shaheen Sayani LA Film Festival

"FALSE CONFESSIONS is shedding new light on the highly questionable, little-debated dark underbelly of the American justice system."

Zurich Film Festival

"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."

Making a Murderer Attorney Dean Strang

"Captivating, haunting. A devastating emotional journey."

Criterion Cast

"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."

Film Snob Reviews

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.

Subject Areas

PROFILED

Profiled knits the stories of mothers of Black and Latino youth murdered by the NYPD into a powerful indictment of racial profiling and police brutality, and places them within a historical context of the roots of racism in the U.S. Some of the victims—Eric Garner, Michael Brown—are now familiar the world over. Others, like Shantel Davis and Kimani Gray, are remembered mostly by family and friends in their New York neighborhoods. Ranging from the routine harassment of minority students in an affluent Brooklyn neighborhood to the killings and protests in Staten Island and Ferguson, Missouri, PROFILED bears witness to the racist violence that remains an everyday reality for Black and Latino people in this country. Moving interviews with victims’ family members are juxtaposed with sharply etched analyses by evolutionary biologist, Joseph L.Graves, Jr, (The Race Myth) and civil rights lawyer, Chauniqua D. Young, (Center for Constitutional Rights, Stop and Frisk lawsuit). PROFILED gives us a window on one of the burning issues of our time.

Learn more

The Feeling of Being Watched

An Arab American filmmaker uncovers the story of her community’s surveillance by the FBI long before 9/11

Learn more

What Doesn't Kill Me

Every day, 5 million children in the U.S. either witness or are victims of domestic violence.

Learn more

Coded Bias

When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovers that many facial recognition technologies misclassify women and darker-skinned faces, she delves into an investigation of widespread bias in algorithms.

Learn more

Sin by Silence

From behind prison walls, a group of extraordinary women are shattering misconceptions of domestic violence. An important film that profiles Convicted Women Against Abuse (CWAA), the US prison system’s first inmate initiated group and led by women, SIN BY SILENCE is an essential resource featuring more than two hours of bonus materials, including interviews with experts on abusive relationships, law enforcement leaders and leaders in faith-based communities about domestic violence, and more. Created by Brenda Clubine in 1989, CWAA has changed laws for battered women, raised awareness for those on the outside, and educated a system that does not fully comprehend the complexities of domestic abuse. Like many CWAA members, Brenda’s years of inflicted abuse were never fully revealed. But because of CWAA’s work and advocacy, new laws were enacted that now allow incarcerated survivors to challenge their original conviction. With unprecedented access inside the California Institution for Women, this emotionally packed documentary tells the stories of courageous women who have learned from their past, are changing their future, and teaching us how domestic violence affects each and every person.

Learn more

The Grey Area: Feminism Behind Bars

Closed captioned and audio described DVD available on request. Please email [email protected]

Learn more

OUR CATALOG