THE TRIALS OF DARRYL HUNT
**** out of *****

Reviewed by Finger_of_DOOM

Screening in the 2007 New Zealand International Film Festival
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Genres
Crime
Documentary
Legal

2006
Written and Directed by
Ricki Stern
Anne Sundberg

“Racism is illogical and emotional, therefore facts don’t matter”
Larry Little (Long-time supporter of Hunt. Former alderman)

Racism is nothing new, especially when we’re talking about the ‘supposed’ blindness of the law, and black people being targeted and profiled for crimes is nothing that’s surprising anymore. But it should be. In 1984 Darryl Hunt, an African-American man from Winston-Salem, North Carolina was charged and convicted of raping and murdering a local newspaper reporter…a white woman.

Deborah Sykes was brutally and unjustly taken away from her loved ones. Equally unjust was the wrongful conviction of Hunt, an innocent man who spent nearly 20 years of incarceration trying to prove this fact. Over the years Hunt had amassed a group of loyal supporters that included community leaders and lawyers working effortlessly to help free this man.

This film focuses on three major threads: Hunt’s case, the people helping him and finally hearing from Hunt himself (who on the outside seems like a genuinely calm and peaceful person). The case was a mess from the start, over the course of the film you’ll see the incompetence of the police department’s investigation such as important leads that were not followed, DNA samples not tested, and utilising witnesses that were not credible: a man who was identified as the 911 caller had a criminal history, one eye-witness was a Ku Klux Klan member and another was a drugged out 14-year-old prostitute that according to psychiatric reports had a hard time telling the difference between fantasy and reality. Shocking isn’t it? But this was not only allowed to carry on but matters were further complicated with the fact that the defense attorney’s assigned to the Hunt case never tried a murder trial (The first trial, subsequent appeals were tried by other lawyers). Want more to boil your blood, how about this: the Winston-Salem Police Department was clearly racist in the handling of this case and motivated a virtual lynching-by-trail that sealed Hunt’s fate then and there (oh yeah, 11 of the 12 juror’s were white!).

The film paints a painfully clear picture that racism was a major factor in this case; it’s the driving force of the documentary. The unjust treatment and conviction was a product of racism…however, and this is a big ‘however’ the actual person that committed the crime also happened to be African-American. So does this make it a case of racism or profiling? The film leans in one direction and avoids the conflict of ‘either-or’ which does place the film in a slightly off-balance position. After all documentary films do push an agenda and filmmakers Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg have created a very effect piece of advocacy cinema that does engage.

The filmmakers stuck by their subjects for a decade, piecing the events together with the use of interviews with key people involved, however more from the prosecution is required to form a general understanding of their motivations political, societal or otherwise (there was certainly pressure to convict this man) I also found that the outright refusal of participation from the Winston-Salem Police Department ended up being more harmful to them and as a result the impact of the film is strengthened. Archival news and courtroom footage, photographs and newspaper articles covering the case are also used to put together a timeline of events. The matter-of-fact structure of the film is crafted with simplistic precision and is always absorbing, especially the drama of having to go through several trials leading up to the Supreme Court over nearly 20-years will anger most viewers. If anything it will damage any faith you once had in the legal system but more importantly it will move you and as the final outcome is unfolded and Hunt is finally freed (after DNA evidence is used to find the real person behind the crime) you may actually find yourself quietly cheering for the happy ending…finally.   

This film will screen in Wellington at The Film Archive on August 4 at 5:30pm and at The Paramount on August 5 at 1:15pm.

Please refer to the Film Fest homepage for more information on screenings in other parts of the country

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