Thursday, August 20, 2009

ONE LAST SHOT

by Lisa R. Cohen

So here’s the new project I’m immersing myself in – a different side of Crime, Ink. But first, some history.

In 1996 I was producing for ABC News PrimeTime Live. I traveled to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, site of the film Dead Man Walking and one of the most notoriously brutal prisons in American history.

Correspondent Cynthia McFadden and I were profiling Susan Sarandon, the actress who played Sister Helen Prejean in the movie, but the piece had spun away from us and we found ourselves in the death chamber at Angola, interviewing Sister Helen herself. She understood the value of a good visual.

From there, it was just a short hop – ok, a very long one - to a one-hour PrimeTime Live special on the death penalty called “Judgment at Midnight.” Cynthia and I and a very talented production team installed cameras on Death Row, including two fixed cameras clamped to a condemned man’s cell bars round the clock.

We followed him for days, finally to the door of the death chamber, where we watched him walk in. Along the way, we also interviewed his family, the family of his victims, the lawyers for both sides, the guards, and his fellow death row inmates. And we spent a lot of time with Warden Burl Cain, who gave the orders for his death, a very media savvy man who told us, “If you’re going to be for the death penalty, you ought to see the way it all happens… see it from my shoes.”

It was a profound and humbling experience. Now, thirteen years later, I’m back at Angola for a look at another kind of death penalty. This time our story takes place inside the infirmary, following the lives – and deaths – of hospice patients who’ve been given months to live because of diseases like liver failure, cancer, or heart disease. Old men’s diseases inside walls where 9 out of every ten inmates is serving life, until they die, inside these walls.

But the story is less about the terminal patients than it is about the hospice staff, the men who care for the patients until they die, then care for their successors until they die, and on and on. The staff is made up of fellow inmates, also serving life sentences. Most are killers who will now see death in a different way, up close, lingering, with plenty of time to know and develop ties to the dying. For many it is the first time they’re developing these kinds of ties to anyone, as they help feed, bathe, carry or wheel their patients around. As the end approaches, they’ll change their patients’ diapers, sit with them round the clock in a vigil, pray with them, and finally, help to bury them.

In our proposed documentary, we’ll ask questions about what that work does to someone who cared so little about life before this. We’ll ponder redemption. I’d like to think I’m going into this with an open mind. But I wonder what the preconceptions of my readers here are.

Here is the link to the five-minutes-and-change trailer that came of our trip there last month. We’ll use it to raise funds and interest, to get our project made. The documentary is tentatively titled ONE LAST SHOT. Your comments are welcome. And if anyone has a better title to suggest, we're open to ideas.

Watch here:



Or go to:
http://www.lisarcohen.com/OneLastShotFinalWeb.mov

8 comments:

FleaStiff said...

One Last Shot?
I'm not sure of my views on this. I find hospital care and hospice care are topics that disturb me. I know I could never work in such an atmosphere.
I think I'd want to see a juxtaposition of hospice care for inmates with hospice care for the law-abiding.
Its possible the level of care is equally dismal.
I am reminded of a line from "Cool Hand Luke" wherein a guard comments that in twenty years on the job he has never shot a white man. I wonder if similar sentiments exist in hospice care? With so much in prison depending upon access to funds, I wonder if things are different in the hospice cell block?

Cheryl Dubey said...

Oh I can't wait to see this! All we see of the prison system now is the gangs, the violence and sometimes the perspective of the guards that work within the prisons. You can find one of these programs on tv any given night.

I prefer the "behind the scenes" stories and this is definetly going to be one of them. I don't belive anyone has touched on this subject at all.

Condemned men becoming care takers, showing compassion and doing something that matters? Heck yea bring it on.

Kathryn Casey said...

Really enjoyed the trailer, Lisa. It's an important story to tell.

Leah said...

I like this....wonder how these men would have turned out had they been in similar environments before they got to prison. It shows that people can learn to be compassionate and give of themselves.

Anonymous said...

Lisa, this is beautiful.

While I have been skeptical about criminal redemption at times, this short trailer reminds me to never give up on any man who is still breathing.

What a kind and generous project. I would call this the Lord's work.

May you prosper in all that you strive towards in sharing this glimpse of unexpected love and compassion.

God bless you!

Kate Crisp said...

Is this trailer available on youtube or hulu or somewhere that I can get the embed code? I would like to post it on the National Prison Hospice and other prison sites I run.
thanks,
kate
Kate@prisondharmanetwork.org

Anonymous said...

Fascinating. I look forward to seeing your documentary.

Wendy said...

As a former hospice volunteer who currently works teaching writing in a county jail, I am heartened and touched by this piece. I am always grateful for any media that provides the public with a view of the true humanity that exists behind bars, and am inspired by the compassion that I see in the eyes of those hospice volunteers. Thank you for sharing!