Metro Cinema Society: Doc Soup: Presumed Guilty

Doc Soup: Presumed Guilty

Mexico 2009, 91 min, Dir: Roberto Hernández & Geoffrey Smith

Presumed Guilty tells the heart-wrenching story of a man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. On a December day in Mexico City, 2005, José Antonio Zuñiga pleaded: "God, kill me or put me in jail" as he wrestled with an unhappy love affair. A week later, a boy pointed him out from a police car, and he was arrested then charged with murder. 48 hours later he was sent to prison. A judge who never heard him speak sentenced him to twenty years on the testimony of a single, shaky, eyewitness. Two unlikely filmmakers, Mexican lawyers recruited by Antonio's friends, followed him with a camera in what seemed a hopeless quest to get the case re-tried. The future seemed promising, however, the retrial was assigned to the same judge who had already convicted him, with one variation: a camera would be there this time to record the court's every move. Through one man's extraordinary two-year struggle to regain his freedom, Presumed Guilty documents the contradictions of a judicial system that presumes guilt.

Admission with a Doc Soup subscription; single tickets $10 at door. Sorry, Metro passes not accepted. For more info, visit docsoup.ca or globalvisionsfestival.com.