The liberal city with a dirty secret: this lawyer's about to expose it all.
Jeff Adachi is a public defender in San Francisco who takes on the misdemeanor case of 22-year-old Michael Smith, who pleaded not guilty in one of the first body camera cases in the city when he was charged with nine counts of resisting arrest. This urgent documentary shows how far Adachi and his team will fight for the young man’s freedom while exposing black-crime bias in ostensibly liberal SF.
Direction
Adachi directing himself — meta tension between subject and filmmaker
Editing
Body-cam cuts that force you to be the jury
Writing
Legal arguments so sharp they should be taught in schools
Director
Jeff Adachi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Jeff Adachi was San Francisco's only elected public defender and served until his sudden death in 2019.
This was among the first documentaries to use police body-cam footage as evidentiary centerpiece, predating widespread reform debates.
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