DR Colloquium Series: The Penalty Screening and Discussion
Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

SMU Dispute Resolution & Conflict Management
Harold Clark Simmons Hall, 101A
6401 Airline Road, Dallas, Texas 75205

Event details & tickets ($15):
https://www.facebook.com/events/409525876427198/

The Penalty:
Three extraordinary people embark on journeys of recovery, discovery and rebellion and find themselves centre stage in the biggest capital punishment crisis in modern memory. The Penalty unearths an America where grieving families, botched executions and wrongful convictions force us to question what we think we know about the death penalty.

Panelists:
Walter C. Long, executive producer of The Penalty, is an Austin criminal defense attorney who has represented individuals on Texas' death row in their final appeals for over two decades. In 2007, Long founded the Texas After Violence Project (TAVP), which receives, archives, and shares oral histories of persons who've had personal experience with the death penalty or other forms of State violence. In addition to the JD, Long holds a master's degree in counseling psychology. His principal concerns about the death penalty, based upon his own experience in the legal and human systems arenas, are related to how others in death penalty cases are affected and that the punishment is a trauma generating system, resulting in a serious public health problem.

Laura Shacham –Producer
Laura cut her teeth in high energy, high impact social issue documentaries on Just Do It: a tale of modern-day outlaws, the feature documentary that gained unprecedented access to the secretive world of environmental direct action. Following a sell-out premiere at Sheffield Doc/Fest, the film had an extensive cinema release in the UK alongside community and festival screenings stretching from Quebec to Kosovo. Spurred on by the possibilities for change harboring in alternative distribution models, she joined Will Francome and Mark Pizzey to produce One For Ten, the Webby-nominated interactive web series profiling innocent people who had been wrongfully convicted and on death row. The team then went on to make the feature documentary -The Penalty -which has just launched on Amazon in 98 countries. Laura also regularly works with Disobedient Films (Leah Borromeo & Katharine Round), production managing for Al Jazeera’s WITNESS -Salma the Boxer (2018), Mortician of Manila (2019) and forthcoming Tsunami Ghosts (2020).

Will Francome –Director
Will's first foray in to film was with his authored feature documentary, 'In Prison My Whole Life' about death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. The film featured Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Snoop Dogg and Mos Def among others and was executive produced by Colin Firth. 'In Prison' screened at many international film festivals including Sundance, London and Rome and won best film at the Geneva and Paris Human Rights Film Festivals. Will then went on to work in television, working for ITV, Channel 4, the BBC and multiple satellite channels.After starting the production company reel nice, Will directed 'Life After Guantanamo' for Current TV and produced and directed films for Puma, Nokia, Amnesty International, the Tate, and others. As well as directing and producing, Will is a keen editor and has also written for The Guardian, Amnesty International and other periodicals.