[DejaVoodoo]

Storyville: The House I Live In

Monday 14 January
10.00-11.50pm
BBC FOUR

As America remains embroiled in overseas conflict, a less visible war is taking place at home, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans.

For over 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs are more available today than ever before.

Filmed in more than 20 states by critically acclaimed filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, Storyville: The House I Live In captures a definitive and heart-wrenching portrait of individuals at all levels of America’s War on Drugs. From the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America’s longest war, revealing its profound human rights implications.

While recognizing the seriousness of drug abuse as a matter of public health, the film investigates the tragic errors and shortcomings that have instead treated it as a matter for law enforcement, creating a vast political and economic machine that feeds largely on America’s poor, especially minority communities. Yet beyond simple misguided policy, the film investigates how political and economic corruption have fueled the war for 40 years, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures.

Ultimately, Storyville: The House I Live In seeks, through compassionate enquiry, to promote public awareness of the history and contemporary mechanics of this human rights crisis and to begin a national conversation about its reform.

Just heard Eugene Jarecki on 5live. Sounds like a good documentary.

[Victoria Sponge]

Was just flicking through and happened to catch a repeat of this a couple of hours ago. Fascinating, eye opening stuff. I think I missed the first bit though. This could well largely explain the massively disproportionate numbers of black inmates in US prisons. Well it seems convincing to me anyway.

[StaxVolt]

Storyville can be a bit 'hit and miss' for me but this documentary was superb from start to finish.

Mr Jarecki struck the right note here in exposing the scandal of 'Punishment For Profit' which has only served to create a cyclical process of evisceration of the poorest and least advantaged from a 'First World',let's not forget,society.

David Simon,creator of 'The Wire' had many significant contributions along the way and when the emphasis is placed on the fact that the 'War On Drugs' has been going on for 42 years,it beggars belief that the status quo remains the same.

That is of course until we are introduced to the salespeople in the prison industry at their burgeoning convention .Surely yet another warning from the country that has often been 5-10 years ahead of us in certain types of economic models,particularly those that demand privatisation and therefore alllow market forces to define the quality of a service.

[Victoria Sponge]

Originally Posted by StaxVolt

That is of course until we are introduced to the salespeople in the prison industry at their burgeoning convention ..

I couldn't believe that! Like an ExCel show for all things prison! Crazy stuff.

[dao]

I watched this and wow, it was a devastating critique of the War on Drugs. The most disturbing aspect for me was how much people within the system profit and benefit from this "war". Private prison industry getting contracts to build more prisons and filling them up by giving guys life sentences for a small envelope of meth (some of the sentences were insane). Police officers being given more and more money for every drug arrest they make, arrests which seem much easier to make than any other crime so they can rack them up. It seems to be keeping a lot of people employed.

[Steve AWOL]

I stumbled across this documentary last night after noticing that David Simon was involved (I bumped The Wire' BBC thread but to no avail!) and found it to be both interesting and depressing viewing.

It must have got a very limited UK cinema release last year as I must admit to having never heard of it, even though it won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize: US Documentary.

Fortunately it is available on iPlayer until July 2nd: BBC iPlayer - Storyville: 2012-2013: The House I Live In

And is still being shown at select cinemas: http://thehouseilivein.co.uk/screenings

[StaxVolt]

Originally Posted by Steve AWOL

I stumbled across this documentary last night after noticing that David Simon was involved (I bumped The Wire' BBC thread but to no avail!) and found it to be both interesting and depressing viewing.

It must have got a very limited UK cinema release last year as I must admit to having never heard of it, even though it won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize: US Documentary.

Fortunately it is available on iPlayer until July 2nd: BBC iPlayer - Storyville: 2012-2013: The House I Live In

And is still being shown at select cinemas: http://thehouseilivein.co.uk/screenings

Thanks for the links Steve ... I didn't know about the Sundance prize either but kudos to them!

[ShotMarvin1]

Just finished watching this now. What an incredible documentary! Having studied this briefly as part of my A-level History course, I do have an interest in this subject matter anyway. It's clear to me now more than ever that the War on Drugs has been a devastating failure and a sad indictment on modern America. How saddening was it to see the sentencing officials still trotting out the same hysterical rhetoric that Reagan/ Bush Sr. were spouting in the late 80s/ early 90s. Things need to change, that's for sure.

[DejaVoodoo]

Heard great things about this. Will watch it on iplayer over the next few days.

[StaxVolt]

I came across this Rolling Stone article that pinpoints HSBC's punishment for money-laundering Colombian and Mexican drug cartels' cash in comparison to say,citizens of a small town in Texas when local police found cash in their cars after a stop and search.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...k=mostpopular4

[Bulletguy1]

Originally Posted by Victoria Sponge

Was just flicking through and happened to catch a repeat of this a couple of hours ago. Fascinating, eye opening stuff. I think I missed the first bit though. This could well largely explain the massively disproportionate numbers of black inmates in US prisons. Well it seems convincing to me anyway.

I found the historic use of drugs interesting.....the old guy with the white beard (cant remember his name) who showed how it has been directly connected to race and colour. First the Chinese with their opium pipes, later the indulgence of the partying white, way way before any black American even knew of the stuff.

The politicians "War on Drugs" has been used as nothing more than a vote winner to get themselves a highly paid, high profile job, whilst supporting tactics amounting to a warped and cynical form of ethnic cleansing.

The entire documentary proved pretty disturbing viewing.

Originally Posted by StaxVolt

Storyville can be a bit 'hit and miss' for me but this documentary was superb from start to finish.

Mr Jarecki struck the right note here in exposing the scandal of 'Punishment For Profit' which has only served to create a cyclical process of evisceration of the poorest and least advantaged from a 'First World',let's not forget,society.

David Simon,creator of 'The Wire' had many significant contributions along the way and when the emphasis is placed on the fact that the 'War On Drugs' has been going on for 42 years,it beggars belief that the status quo remains the same.

That is of course until we are introduced to the salespeople in the prison industry at their burgeoning convention .Surely yet another warning from the country that has often been 5-10 years ahead of us in certain types of economic models,particularly those that demand privatisation and therefore allow market forces to define the quality of a service.

I agree some Storyville documentaries are disappointing whilst others are exceptional. This was certainly the latter and there seems to be no 'inbetween'. As you say.....hit or miss!

David Simon gave very articulate explanations and I found him very interesting to listen to. Obviously a very intelligent man. I didn't quite get the connection between him and 'Nanny', the elderly black lady. Was she his family Nanny when Simon was a young boy? I'd be interested to know more about him and his family background history.

Like you I also found the Prison Service 'Sales convention' odd to the point of farcical.....though typical America. BIB really says it all i'm afraid.

It would be interesting to read views from some of the American DS posters on this programme and I see it is available to watch on BBC iplayer;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...use_I_Live_In/

[StaxVolt]

Originally Posted by Bulletguy1

I found the historic use of drugs interesting.....the old guy with the white beard (cant remember his name) who showed how it has been directly connected to race and colour. First the Chinese with their opium pipes, later the indulgence of the partying white, way way before any black American even knew of the stuff.

The politicians "War on Drugs" has been used as nothing more than a vote winner to get themselves a highly paid, high profile job, whilst supporting tactics amounting to a warped and cynical form of ethnic cleansing.

The entire documentary proved pretty disturbing viewing.


I agree some Storyville documentaries are disappointing whilst others are exceptional. This was certainly the latter and there seems to be no 'inbetween'. As you say.....hit or miss!

David Simon gave very articulate explanations and I found him very interesting to listen to. Obviously a very intelligent man. I didn't quite get the connection between him and 'Nanny', the elderly black lady. Was she his family Nanny when Simon was a young boy? I'd be interested to know more about him and his family background history.

Like you I also found the Prison Service 'Sales convention' odd to the point of farcical.....though typical America. BIB really says it all i'm afraid.

It would be interesting to read views from some of the American DS posters on this programme and I see it is available to watch on BBC iplayer;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...use_I_Live_In/

Hi there Bulletguy,if it helps,Nanni Jetta was a family friend of the Jarecki's and was like a second mum to programme maker Eugene.Her own son was lost to her in the 'War on Drugs' and it was the casualties of him and their extended family that gave Jarecki the initial idea for the research.

David Simon is a successful author in his own right and his career began as the Crime Journalist for the Baltimore Sun where for ten years he reported on the worst excesses of the drug trade in that city.His experiences resulted in his finest work to date in the social commentary drama that is 'The Wire'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Simon


Hope it helps .