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Dirs. Robert Hernandez, Geoffrey Smith

Presumed Guilty follows the plight of two young Mexican attorneys who make a documentary in an attempt to free a wrongly convicted prisoner. Through their research, they soon come to realise the glaring inadequacies in the Mexican judicial system which they then seek to expose.

The protagonist Jose Antonio Zuniga Rodriguez, known as “Tono”, has been incarcerated for First Degree Murder. In Mexico, a person suspected of a crime has to prove their innocence rather than vice versa. Policeman and other authorities in the judicial system are rewarded for the number of arrests they make. In the hands of the wrong individuals, this leads to people like Tono being arrested for crimes they didn’t commit; corrupt policemen and judges don’t want to waste time finding the real culprits.  A shocking statistic states “92% of verdicts are based on no physical evidence”. Due to the difference in law, once in prison the inmates have very few rights to appeal. For people in Tono’s position, being innocent means precious little when you are incapable of proving it.

The level of access achieved in Presumed Guilty is staggering. The viewer is invited through the towering gates and into the heart of the prison itself.  Unbelievably, the Mexican prison officials allow a camera into the retrial, which the attorneys make possible due to inconsistencies in the original case. This makes for one of the most dramatic and provocative scenes in the documentary as Tono is filmed coming face to face with his oppressors.

Throughout the narrative, the filmmakers’ passion for their subject is demonstrated with the effective use of statistics, continually reiterating the severity of the breach of human rights taking place. Powerful imagery pulls at the heartstrings of the viewer. One haunting image, which the film returns to again and again, depicts rows and rows of case files stacked as high as the walls in a seemingly never-ending line.

It certainly helps the film’s objective that Tono is a charismatic, eloquent, talented and attractive subject. The viewer is left with the uneasy feeling that it really can happen to anyone. In this way, the film succeeds in representing him as an ambassador for all the young men who are incarcerated unlawfully in Mexican prisons, or as Tono himself states, “Mexico’s future”.

Presumed Guilty asks serious questions about a valid and shocking subject. It is a provocative and raw documentary that will keep your attention keenly throughout. The film seems sometimes to overcompensate with graphics and other stylistic tools, but this is one very small detail in an otherwise extremely effective and engaging film.

Comments

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  Posted by Amber Dobinson on 29-07-11

  Presumed Guilty is nominated for three Emmys. Congratulations to our friend Geoffrey Smith and fellow director Robert Hernandez!

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