Reflections

Shadows of Doubt

16mm, 86 min., 1999 (RP)

What an incredibly provocative film Jonathan Stack has produced here about the elusive search for truth in our criminal justice system. His documentary follows up on a shocking scene in his Academy Award-nominated film, The Farm: Angola, USA, in which Vincent Simmons, having served 22 years of a 100-year sentence for the rape of two 14-year-old twins, finally gets the chance to present to a parole board what looked like exculpatory evidence only to be shined on by a board which made little pretense of even considering his evidence. Stack goes behind that scene and the trial record, talking to anyone remotely involved only to conclude, two years later, that he was no closer to the truth. The truth, says one of the victims, can be known only by the accused and the victims. It is then arranged for the victims to confront Simmons so that each can cathartically make their peace and move on. The camera lingers searchingly on each of the parties. The victims have always seemed so sure and unwavering -- without a shadow of a doubt -- even during the confrontation. Was that a flash of nervousness on Vincent's face? Where, when he confronts his accusers, was the fury of an innocent man wrongly imprisoned for 22 years? Did he appear, instead, to be relievedly accepting their proffered forgiveness? An avalanche of questions about fair trials are raised, and still, in the end, truth eludes. What we're left with is only a juror's and documentary-viewer's gut sense of who is telling the truth.