Educational Media Reviews Online

Red Hook Justice is a well developed presentation about a community justice center. The main goal of the center is to seek a fair level of justice and a higher level of re-education in an attempt to clean up a community one precious life at a time through hard work and caring. Utilizing an effective combination of interviews, live-action video, and narration, this carefully pieced together program offers a clear explanation of how the Red Hook Community Justice Center works, as well as providing an inside study into actual cases which play out on the screen before us.

Where some documentaries can appear to be little more than a propaganda vehicle for or against some entity, Red Hook Justice cannot be mistaken for one of these. To demonstrate impartiality there are opposing viewpoints established, successes and failures equally represented, and doubt about the program verbalized from within the system. This video is rather hard-edged at times, yet it remains a very realistic glimpse of an inner city social program that is still evolving and carries with it much potential.

By far, the best summarization of what the Red Hook Community Justice Center is all about comes from Judge Alex Calabrese when he says, “In the traditional court, defendants and their families are seen as outcasts, community outcasts, and they are treated as such. Here, we recognize that defendants are part of our community. And they’re going to be part of the community when they get arrested, and they’re going to be part of our community when the case is over with. And to a certain extent we are all better off when we try to work with those defendants and their families.”

One rather minor error Ms. Spadola committed in making this video is failing to keep viewers informed of the passage of time. As a viewer, it bothered me not to know how much time was passing as the cases were progressing. When considering, and ultimately downplaying this minor shortcoming, one must be aware that time intervals are not the primary point of the film. Nonetheless, the additional information would have been a welcomed courtesy.

Considering the technical aspects, I have only slight reservations about the audio which, at times may leave a bit to be desired. Overall, however, the audio quality is good, especially considering some of the conditions in which the recording took place. By and large the production is technically sound, well written with clean video, and nice editing. It is obvious that Meema Spadola is experienced in this type of filmmaking, so much so that her film could be mistaken for an episode of Frontline or similar high visibility programs. If your institution has a law program or a diversified psychology program, you should definitely give this film serious consideration.