Nature of the Crime

A documentary about juveniles who are serving life in prison without parole and their victims' families.

After decades behind bars, three men set out to prove success can lie on the other side of tragedy. Follows the stories of Harrison, Noel, and Chris as they return home from San Quentin State Prison. After spending most of their lives incarcerated, they are forced to reconcile their perception of themselves with a reality they are unprepared for. Each struggles to overcome personal demons and reconstruct their fractured lives. Grappling with day-to-day challenges and striving for success, they work to reconnect with family and provide for themselves for the first time in their adult lives. Told in an unadorned vérité style, we experience the truth of their heartaches and triumphs. As their stories unfold over weeks, months and years, the precarious nature of freedom after incarceration in America is revealed.

A father exits prison and tries to integrate with his two children and girlfriend while living in a halfway house and on parole.

Hear from the prosecutors who handled Susan Smith's case and why authorities doubted her story from the beginning. The boys' father, David Smith, talks about why he believes 30 years in prison isn't long enough for Susan and what he's prepared to tell a SC Board of Pardons and Paroles to keep her behind bars.

North Philadelphia, PA – Kev, El and Andy are three men united by one struggle: they are trying to defy gravity. As part of the 700,000 prisoners released into society every year, they find themselves faced with a chilling outlook: 67% of ex-offenders re-offend within three years. What explains this invisible force that keeps former inmates in a seemingly unending cycle of incarceration? Filmed on the street over the course of two years, Pull of Gravity is an intimate portrait of these three men that confronts head-on the gritty details of lives cut short by poverty and drugs, where dealing is seen as the only route to economic prosperity, where using offers an escape from powerlessness, and where prison is too often the next stop. The film’s unfiltered lense captures its subjects as they lay bare their stories, fears, and tentative dreams.

Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts his old band back together to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised.

Story of a tuna fisherman who has been wrongfully convicted of a murder he did not commit. His exemplary behavior in prison ensures that he is up for early parole. He realizes, however, that his movements will be limited, and he will be unable to join and wed his beloved. The only solution is to escape and hunt down the real killer, himself.

When juvenile inmate Malcolm is offered a chance at parole, he is torn between his chance for freedom and protecting the one he loves.

Janet Holman is suspicious of her fiancé, Allen Wells, after he kisses her best friend Gwen when the lights are turned out during a party. Allen leaves early, purportedly for business reasons, but in reality, he is going to visit his secret girl friend, seventeen-year-old Ruth Jarrett. When Ruth's neighbor and landlady, Mrs. Humphries, overhears her talking to Allen on the phone, she becomes morally outraged and calls the police. Ruth is taken away to juvenile hall, and when Ruth's older brother Nick comes home to celebrate Ruth's birthday, Mrs. Humphries explains that Ruth has been seeing an older, wealthy man who has been leading her astray, and that she sent her away for her own good. Nick is saddened that he has failed to keep Ruth on the right track, and when he returns to his apartment, he becomes enraged to see Allen there. When Allen claims ignorance of Ruth's age, Nick hits him, and they engage in a brawl.

A conscientious attorney who is a member of the State Parole Board, finds his own son, using an alias, up for parole and makes the decision to cast the approving vote.

A New York City probation officer, noted for his sympathy with delinquents, put to a severe test when his daughter falls for a boy whom circumstances force into breaking the law.