Filmmakers Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir’s documentary examines a great scandal in the American legal system concerning a failure to address cases of sexual assault. I Am Evidence essentially falls into two parts, one of which castigates the double standard that police have often applied—dismissing accusations made by women of color while aggressively following up on those from wealthier, more socially "reputable" victims. The major focus of the film, however, is on the disgraceful treatment of completed rape kits, thousands of which have been stockpiled for years without ever having been processed. Viewers will hear the painful stories of women whose accusations were effectively ignored, as well as the comments from their understandably angry relatives. I Am Evidence does note signs that the situation is improving in cities such as Detroit and Cleveland, where activist prosecutors have established programs to deal with the backlog, even identifying serial offenders whose later crimes might have been prevented had matters initially been handled efficiently. The documentary also puts officials on the spot who try to justify past practice, often on the grounds of insufficient resources but sometimes on the basis of sweeping socioeconomic generalizations—a stance that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of rape kits remaining warehoused and untested. Mariska Hargitay, whose character of Detective Olivia Benson vigorously investigates sex crimes on the long-running Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, is one of the film’s producers, and she appears periodically here. But the emphasis is clearly on the long-forgotten victims and the officials who are now trying to get for them the justice they deserve. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
I Am Evidence
(2018) 85 min. DVD: $95: public libraries; $395: colleges & universities. DRA. Tugg. PPR. Volume 34, Issue 1
I Am Evidence
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