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The Force
Directed by Peter Nicks
Purchasing Tickets
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Friday, October 6, 7 pm
With a post-screening discussion lead by Dr. Cherie Dawson-Edwards.
“Hypnotic and eye-opening.” —Bilge Ebiri, Village Voice
Sprawling, immediate, and complex, Peter Nicks’s cinema vérité documentary moves like a pulsing, timely thriller. In 2014, after over a decade of federal monitoring for misconduct and civil rights abuses, the Oakland Police Department hires Chief Sean Whent in hopes of bridging a historically tense divide between its officers and the community they serve.
The Force grants viewers breathless firsthand access to some of law enforcement’s most dangerous jobs. With fly-on-the-wall intimacy, we see a department trapped in transition, desperate to shed its corrupt image but also challenged by an increasingly organized community protest movement holding the department accountable to the citizens they are to serve.
Winner of the Documentary Directing Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. 2017, U.S., DCP, 93 minutes. Recommended for 13+.
Dr. Dawson-Edwards is an Associate Professor in the Department of Justice Administration at the University of Louisville. Dr. Edwards has a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. In addition, she holds bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Journalism from Western Kentucky University and a MS in Justice Administration from the University of Louisville. She is also Acting Co-Director of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research at U of L.