Hot Indie Docs! Vigilante Vigilante — Crime after Crime — premiere!

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Kris Nelson

Both of these stand-out films explore what makes us human: compassion, determination, and unfortunately, repression.

Max Good (Vigilante Vigilante) and Yoav Potash (Crime after Crime) have seriously harnessed provocative yet objective storytelling skills (although there is a definite skew towards one view), the plight of any great documentarian. Add an awesome blend of camera angles and sweeps to visually invigorate and well, you’ve got yourself a winner. Two, in fact.

So don’t let your brain completely atrophy this Summer and soak up these hot docs!

Vigilante Vigilante

World Premiere, Q&A, After Party — August 12, 2011
Roxie in San Francisco

Vigilante Vigilante questions the validity of graffiti buffers (citizens who make removing other people’s street artwork their life’s work, most often using garish silver paint as a cover-up) by thoughtfully interviewing the directly affected — the most infamous buffers in Berkeley, Los Angeles, New Orleans; graffiti artists in these areas. In all cases, the buffers resemble buffoons of their own accord, some caught in their own lies, some almost seemingly delusional sociopaths.

Vigilante Vigilante is more about anti-expressionism than anti-establishment, so try to get over that and free your mind to different venues and definitions of art to reveal the real vigilantes in the doc. Also, pay attention to particularly insightful interviews with urban theorist Stefano Bloch and author Steve Rotman who comprehend the follies of societal conformism. Enjoyable to the max.

(This doc also reminds me of how cool Berkeley and SF cops are!)

Crime after Crime

Debbie Peagler was incarcerated unjustly after seeking her own street justice against a man who repeatedly abused and pimped her out since she was a teen. This man was her husband. Her mother arranged for two gang members to rough him up one night, to frighten him off. Unfortunately (some would say fortunately) he died as a result of the attack, and Debbie went to prison. For 26 years. Is this a fair sentence? Crime After Crime presents the facts and allows you to decide.

Crime After Crime chronicles not only Debbie’s struggle, but the battle that the two Pro Bono (and actually land-use, not civil rights) attorneys with a strong personal interest in abuse cases endured; the battle that defines the fine line government officials straddle between immorality and ignorance. To be fair, it is the D.A (etc, etc)’s responsibility to uphold the law and, in their eyes, Debbie Peagler was a criminal and should be duly punished, but Crime After Crime allows the viewer to wonder how much is enough?

(I think if you don’t shed even just a tiny tear at the end, out of relief or grief, you weren’t paying attention… or maybe you’re a misogynist, I dunno.)

About the Author

Kris Nelson says these directors/screenwriters rarely disappoint: Peter Greenaway, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Gregg Araki. Kris claims that Jake Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, Desmond Harrington and Casey Affleck are much more than pretty faces.