Release: Screening: Adam Egoyan's film "Devil's knor" about the West Memphis Three: Regent Park Theatre; (551 Mount Pleasant Road. Toronto. November 8 and 9, 2013. (Egoyan to be present on November 8 for a Q and A.) Jason Baldwin to address the AIDWYC 20th Anniversary conference on November 23, 2013. (Read Hollywood Reporter review - published on September 9, 2013 - at link below. HL.)
GIST OF HOLLYWOOD REPORTER REVIEW: "Two years ago, TIFF attendees saw the conclusion of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost trilogy, documenting the wrongful conviction and hard-won release of the West Memphis Three; at Sundance the next year, we saw Amy Berg's West of Memphis, a single-film treatment bringing new evidence to bear on the same subject. Now comes Atom Egoyan's Devil's Knot, a dramatization focusing on the period between the murder of three young boys in West Memphis, Ark., and the conviction of three teens who clearly didn't kill them. Far from being overkill, the well-conceived drama featuring A-listers Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth in key roles, will bring this infuriating tale of injustice to many mainstream moviegoers for the first time; it has every hope of receiving a strong commercial reception and attracting even more attention to a horrifying crime whose perpetrator or perpetrators remain free.........Egoyan keeps an emotional lid on courtroom suppression of these discoveries without making the scene lifeless; after the verdict comes in, with Echols given the death penalty, the film envisions just a hint of the direction continuing investigations would go before concluding with informative titles. Tech values are consistently strong, with Mychael Danna's score particularly effective. A closing dedication to the three murdered children is more moving than many such gestures, reminding us that while prosecutorial sins have kept this story alive as one of three teen lives stolen by the state, three even younger boys were robbed of something much greater."
The entire review can be found at:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/devils-knot/review/624802
Information on Jason Baldwin's appearance at the AIDWYC conference - and on over-all conference agenda can be found at:
http://aidwyc.org/Back_to_the_
Wikipedia account on the West Memphis Three: "In July 2007, new forensic evidence was presented in the case and a status report jointly issued by the State and the Defense team stated, "Although most of the genetic material recovered from the scene was attributable to the victims of the offenses, some of it cannot be attributed to either the victims or the defendants." On October 29, 2007, the defense filed a Second Amended Writ of Habeas Corpus, outlining the new evidence.[4] Following a successful decision in 2010 by the Arkansas Supreme Court regarding newly produced DNA evidence,[5] the West Memphis Three reached a deal with prosecutors. On August 19, 2011, they entered Alford pleas, which allow them to assert their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them. Judge David Laser accepted the pleas and sentenced the three to time served. They were released with ten-year suspended sentences, having served 18 years and 78 days in prison.[6]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com
