COURTROOM 3H Feature Films In Person at AFI Silver

North America Premiere

Following the screening, watch a special conversation with director Antonio Méndez Esparza, producer Ana Castañosa and subject Judge Sjostrom moderated by AFI Festivals Programmer Malin Kan.

Inside the Tallahassee Unified Family Court, cases of abuse, abandonment or negligence are presided over with the express objective, under the law, to reunite families as quickly and safely as possible. Filtered through a courtroom professionalism and presented with an observational distance, a sequence of staggeringly emotional hearings and trials hints at the complexities of these family histories, calling into question a justice system with the power to decide who is suitable to be a parent and who is not, but that is incapable of addressing underlying societal structures and often multi-generational pain. Moving into pure nonfiction, filmmaker Antonio Méndez Esparza (LIFE AND NOTHING MORE) offers another profoundly sensitive portrait of family at the mercy of the system. –Malin Kan