American Violet

This film was outstanding. I recently viewed the DVD. Why was it not publicized much? While it was in a few theaters, there were no shows posted in North Florida Theatres and shows in the deep south were limited.

This film is an extremely important and educational film which should (and hopefully will) get more air time. Please get the word out! People can handle it without rivalry. It will be OK. Please put it on Cable and National TV ASAP. The acting was phenomenal in all areas.

It was truly amazing to see that this type of activity still takes place in our Nation. The film was depicting events that took place only a few years ago based on the Bush Presidential Election results information contained within the film.

Thanks.

My stomach started to tense about 1/3 into this movie, and never stopped. I was in the GRIP of this story and social situation which was happening in our country only 8 years ago!! Powerfully acted, produced, edited with a message for all ages. I think this film will help to expose some of the terrible crimes we have been perpetrating in this "democracy".

This film subtly reveals the passivity of ordinary citizens exposed to a tyrannical local government, who keep their heads down and don't make waves. The cost of taking a stand is life-threatening. There are real heroes who realize that it is better to fight and lose against injustice than to submit and be victimized. The movie has an unusual realism while totally engaging us at the same time. I recommend it to all thinking people who care about tolerance and justice.

After seeing this movie at an Atlanta, Georgia screening, it was like being sucker punched and having all the wind knocked out. And this is a docu-drama based on a real like event. I've seen all that mess and more, have a better understanding of how and why 92 year old Katheryn Johnston was murdered. Why I see the police all the time except when I call them for help (that's not why they are in my neighborhood). The truly false perception of how well the DA's, Judges and police are doing their jobs but what they do is no more than busy work, never accomplishing a thing. And jails are the only industry in America that is growing. When was the last time you went to the store to buy a prison? Stopped in a showroom to look at the latest model prison? I don't recall asking for new prisons or more prisons; they was the ideas of politicians and investors (so you know there's money involved somewhere). And the 2 Federal Judges that were convicted for taking bribed (paid $2.5 million) to lengthen sentence in juvenile cases. We need to talk about this or we'll all end up behind bars. And this is all allowed, by law, because of the wording in the 13th Amendment giving slavery and involuntary servitude a legal place in America.

It has nothing to do with the actors and the director, because the performances were dead on. I was very extremely disgusted with the racists and racist system that allowed this type of injustice to happen.

However, what I also found myself disgusted and distracted by, was the main character herself. I struggled with rallying behind a single mother who chose (that's right, chose) to have four children on a waitress' salary and 3 different baby daddies (Before anyone feels the need to point out that there are men out there not taking care of their responsibilities, that just means that there are two, or in this case, 4 guilty parties. It doesn't absolve her of any guilt). I also struggled with the fact that the victims in the movie were driven more by concern about the loss of their food stamps and other public support, rather than justice actually being served. I guess my general bottom line issue is that they managed to create a movie where I didn't particularly like or care what happened to a single character. On one hand, you have a pack of the nastiest type of racists, and on the other, you have a bunch of walking stereotypes that supply them with ammunition.

Powerfully produced and directed, "American Violet" is a film based on the racially charged drug war scandal that rocked the town of Hearne,Texas,several years ago,which explores the devastating impact of America's "war on drugs". Directed by Tim Disney and written by Bill Haney,the film has a powerful story to tell,fueled by the powerful cast which includes Alfre Woodard,Will Patton,Tim Blake Nelson,rapper/actor Xzibit(in a electrifying performance),and Emmy Award winning actor Charles S. Dutton.

The film,as recounted here,the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 15 African-American residents of Hearne who were indicted in November 2000 on drug charges after being rounded up in a series of unlawful paramilitary drug "sweeps". These undercover drug busts,which led to the arrest of 15 percent of the African-American men between the ages of 18 to 34 in Hearne,were uniformly undertaken based on the uncorroborated word of a single unreliable confidental informant coerced by police to make cases. The film centers around Dee(played by newcomer Nicole Beharie)who works a shift at the local diner. The powerful local district attorney(Academy Award nominee Michael O'Keefe)leads an extensive drug bust,sweeping her Arlington Springs housing project with aggressive military tactics. Police drag Dee from work in handcuffs,dumping her in the squalor of the women's county prison. Indicated based on the uncorroborated word of a single and dubious police informant facing his own drug charges,Dee soon discovers that she has been charged as a drug dealer. Even though Dee has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid or any subsequent searches,she is offered a hellish choice:plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon with an attendant loss of her federal and state rights,thus jeopardizing the custody of her children and risking a long prison sentence. Despite the urgings of her mother(Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard),and with her freedom and custody of her children at stake,she chooses to fight the district attorney and the unyielding criminal justice system he represents in the state of Texas. Joined in an unlikely alliance with an ACLU attorney(Tim Blake Nelson),and former local narcotics officer(Will Patton),Dee risks everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. "American Violet" is a hard-hitting Hollywood blockbuster of a film that tells the story of Regina Kelly,one of the people rounded up in a Tulia style drug bust in Hearne,Texas back in 1999. The Hearne tragedy would have never have come to light without Tulia in which people took a stand against the wrongdoings down there in which the people fought for their rights. The cast here in downright superb including the electrifying performance of newcomer Nicole Beharie as Dee Roberts,who took on the State of Texas and won not only her case against her,but her freedom.

A gripping and suspenseful and emotional tale that became one of the official selected films for the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. And it is one of the year's best from 2008. The movie became the left-right combination of a scandal that changed the rules and regulations of the drug war in the State of Texas.