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June 2008
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It shouldn't come as any surprise that a documentary about capital punishment in America is set in Texas. At the Death House Door, the new documentary from Steve James and Peter Gilbert, the same team behind Hoop Dreams, focuses on -- where else? -- Huntsville. The center of the movie is Pastor Carroll Pickett who served as the death house chaplain overseeing the executions of 95 executions. The film spends a lot of time with Pastor Pickett, and his family and friends. Along the way, the filmmakers also pick up on the story of Carlos De Luna, a young man executed for a gas-station murder that many, including Pickett and two Chicago Tribune reporters we watch investigating De Luna's case, believe he didn't committ. There's plenty of political talking points here, but that's not what drives this remarkable film. It's the wisdom and humanity of Pickett. With every execution he would spend the last day with prisoner, talking and listening. And every night, when he got home, he would sit alone in a room and talk into a tape recorder about what he had just witnessed. Every time he talks into the camera, it's like time just stops and lets him speak. You see it on his face and hear it in his voice -- that hard-worn, hard-won compassion and understanding. As we zip-a-dee-doo-dah through another season of summer movies, the thrill-ride wonders of Iron Man, the frilly fun and fashion of Sex and the City, this is a film that grounds you in the simple, profound act of sharing pain and hope and reminds us just how real that thing we call reality remains. Premiere broadcast May 29 at 8 pm CST |
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