[act-ma] 5/28 Death penalty film series starts (part 4 of 5)

[Scott Langley]

Wednesday, May 28 is the fourth film in the
Lucy Parson Center's Death Penalty Film Series

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This week: Thanatos Rx: the Death Penalty Debate in America
with producer and director Maryanne Galvin in attendance
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Next week (June 4) - Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story
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All films will be shown at 7:00 pm at the Lucy Parsons bookstore, 549
Columbus Ave, South End, Boston, 02118.  (617) 267-6272

Free snacks, food, beer, and wine provided.

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For MBTA and driving directions: http://www.lucyparsons.org/directions.php.
(note that parking is not easy to come by on the streets)
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Sponsored by the Lucy Parsons Center, Amnesty International (Northeast
Regional Office and Local Group 133 of Somerville), Mass. Citizens Against
the Death Penalty Fund, and Murder Victims‚ Families for Human Rights.

For more info, contact Scott Langley:
scott at langleycreations.com or 617-262-4262


DESCRIPTIONS OF FILMS:

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Wednesday, May 28th at 7:00 pm
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Thanatos Rx: the Death Penalty Debate in America (2001)
Produced and Directed by Maryanne Galvin, in attendance
59 minutes 

Thanatos Rx presents an even-handed, nonpartisan examination of the many
facets of the death penalty debate in America.  Thanatos Rx journeys beyond
myopic sound bites and static polls to a deeply personal exploration of the
debate. 

Interspersed with powerful and rare archival footage and original
photographs are exclusive interviews with those most touched by Capital
Punishment. Innocence, deterrence, retribution and closure for families of
homicide victims are some of the topics examined through the eyes of a
"volunteer" on Federal Death Row and a murderer who narrowly escaped the
electric chair in Massachusetts. Interviews with families of murder victims,
District Attorneys and legal scholars at prestigious law schools, The
Innocence Project and Amnesty International illustrate the emotional
complexities of the issue.

In attendance will be producer and director Maryanne Galvin, an independent
filmmaker, who holds both an MFA from Emerson College, Boston and a
doctorate in psychology from UMASS/ Amherst.

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Wednesday, June 4 at 7:00 pm
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Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004)
1 hour and 33 minutes

Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips
L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gangbanging, his prison term,
and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence
resolutions, which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal
injection at San Quentin State Prison, California; he was declared dead on
December 13, 2005 at 12:35 a.m. PST (08:35 UTC). Williams is the 12th person
to be executed by California since it reinstated the death penalty in 1977.