Crown Heights 2017

     This film was adapted from a This American Life podcast airing on NPR.  Colin Warner is from Trinidad and he is arrested for a murder that he didn’t commit.  The witnesses in the case give false testimony at his trial and he is sentenced to 15 years to life.  This happened to Colin on April 10, 1980 when he was 18 years old.  His best friend Carl King devotes all his spare time to proving Colin’s innocence.  Colin is having a difficult time adapting to being in prison for an undetermined amount of his life.  It’s a rough life in here and you can get beat up just by being there.  You can also have unwarranted charges brought against you on the inside.  The guards don’t mind getting together to give you the beating they think you deserve.

     This is a very moving film and you can see right away that Colin didn’t commit the crime he is accused of.  You wonder throughout the film how he will cope with his imprisonment and how much of his life will be behind bars.  There is a note at the end of the film stating that there may be 120,000 innocent people or more behind bars among 2.4 million prisoners.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

94 min, Bio directed by Matt Ruskin with Lakeith Stanfield, Nnamdi Asomugha, Natalie Paul, Luke Forbes, Adriane Lenox, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Carlos Hendricks, James Udom, Mohammed Ali, Natalie Paul, Zach Grenier, Josh Pais.

Note:  Imdb 6.3 out of 10, 78% critic 79% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, roger Ebert 3*, Metacritic 64 out of 100 with 25 critics, Amazon 4.8* out of 5* with 183 reviews.

Special Note:  This film won the Audience Award for US Dramatic Film in 2017.  Film Independent Spirit Award Nominee for Best Supporting may Actor.  Also known as Darker Than Blue.  Writer/Director Matt Ruskin worked closely with Colin and KC during production.  He also talked to some of the attorneys and key witnesses.  Lakewith Stanfield met with Colin multiple times to prepare for his role.  Shooting prison scenes were a challenge and some were shot in a jail located in Queens and others in a Staten Island decommissioned prison.  Other studios expressed an interest in this story but none followed through.  Some of the people personally involved with this story had a difficult time remembering details because of the amount of time that had passed.  There is another film with the same title from 2004.