Hunting Bobby Oatway 1997
Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th Street, New York, NY 10016; 202-808-4980
Produced by John Kastner
Directed by John Kastner
VHS, color, 48 min.
Adult
Criminal Justice
Date Entered: 12/02/2004
Reviewed by Nancy E. Frazier, E. H. Butler Library, State University of New York College at BuffaloEmmy-award winning documentary filmmaker John Kastner brings a disturbing topic to the screen with his 1997 film, Hunting Bobby Oatway. Convicted of molesting his own children as well as the younger sisters of his former wife, Bobby Oatway served ten years in prison in British Columbia. Upon his transfer to a halfway house in Toronto, several of Oatway’s victims joined forces with outraged community members to protest his residency at Toronto’s Keele Centre. Kastner’s film explores turbulent issues concerning the rights of victims vs. the rights of criminals, and questions whether a pedophile can truly be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.
Oatway’s victims, the now-grown sisters he molested as children, joined forces with neighborhood residents and launched a “Get Rid of Oatway” campaign. Protesters lined the streets outside the halfway house, demonstrating with bullhorns and posters. City politicians and media got involved, and fellow inmates expressed outrage about being housed with a child molester. All the while, Oatway kept to himself in his room, peeking out the window and avoiding contact with other house residents. Finally overcome, Oatway petitioned to go back to prison in British Columbia.
One watches as a tearful Oatway looks out his window at the angry protestors below. But one is torn by Kastner’s interviews with Oatway’s victims, who describe abuse that scarred their lives forever. We struggle with whether it is just to deny freedom to a pedophile who served his time. We wrestle with the rights of victims and the community to protect themselves against a convicted sexual predator. Made for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Kastner’s film presents a gripping view of the pain of victims and the fear of a community surrounding a convicted pedophile’s attempt to reenter society. The film quality is excellent, and the interview scenes, particularly with the victims, are wrenching. Oatway himself appears on film, as he says, “so that people know me and know what I look like.”
Recommended for general adult audiences. Interviews with fellow residents of the halfway house contain profanity.