GIDEON’S ARMY Directed and Produced by Dawn Porter

Produced by Julie Goldman

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SCREENINGS

Monday, January 21 at 2:30pm - Library Center Theatre

Monday, January 21 at 9:30pm - Holiday Village Cinema 3 - Press & Industry Screening

Wednesday, January 23 at 9:30pm - Redstone Cinema 1

Thursday, January 24 at 2:30pm - MARC

Friday, January 25 at 8:30pm - Prospector Square Theatre

Saturday, January 26 at 3:00pm - Salt Lake City Library Theatre

TRT: 1 hour and 35 minutes

For Press Notes and Photos, please visit:

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Press Contacts:

Cynthia Swartz / Katelyn Bogacki Lana Iny / Asheba Edghill Strategy PR/Consulting HBO Media Relations Office: 646-918-8716/646-918-8742 Office: 212-512-1462/212-512-7331 Cell: 917-213-9850/646-403-0361 Cell: 718-915-5472/917-273-2796 Cynthia.Swartz@StrategyPR.net Lana.Iny@hbo.com Katelyn.Bogacki@StrategyPR.net Asheba.Edghill@hbo.com

HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS GIDEON’S ARMY

SYNOPSIS

GIDEON’S ARMY follows Travis Williams, Brandy Alexander and June Hardwick, three young public defenders who are part of a small group of idealistic lawyers in the Deep South challenging the assumptions that drive a criminal justice system strained to the breaking point. Backed by mentor Jonathan “Rap” Rapping, a charismatic leader who heads the Southern Public Defender Training Center, they struggle against long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads so common that even the most committed often give up in their first year. Nearly 50 years since the landmark Supreme Court ruling Gideon vs. Wainwright that established the right to counsel, can these courageous lawyers revolutionize the way America thinks about indigent defense and make “justice for all” a reality?

For Immediate Release

GIDEON’S ARMY TAKES AN INSIDE LOOK AT THE

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

THREE YOUNG PUBLIC DEFENDERS IN THE SOUTH

-------- HBO Documentary Films Presentation Premieres in the U.S. Documentary

Competition Section at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival --------

In 1961 Clarence Earl Gideon was arrested for stealing soda and a few

dollars from a pool hall. He could not afford an attorney and was convicted after

representing himself at trial. Gideon appealed his conviction to the Supreme

Court, which, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the right to counsel in a criminal

case is fundamental to the American system of justice.

More than 12 million people are arrested in the United States each year.

Fifty years after the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright case, most of them will be

represented by one of the United States’ 15,000 public defenders.

GIDEON’S ARMY follows a group of idealistic young public defenders in

the Deep South, where lawyers face particularly difficult challenges due to high

bonds, minimum mandatory sentencing and a culture that is traditionally “tough

on crime.” Brandy Alexander, Travis Williams and June Hardwick have

dedicated themselves to defend those who otherwise would not get

representation. These lawyers contend with a day-to-day life of low pay, long

hours and staggering caseloads. Despite these obstacles, with the help of the

Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC), these young professionals

are inspired to take on this unique challenge in the name of public service.

Directed by fellow attorney Dawn Porter, GIDEON’S ARMY follows two

young lawyers as they prepare their cases for trial.

Travis Williams is a Gainesville, Ga. lawyer whose client, Branden Lee

Mullin, has been accused of armed robbery and faces a minimum of ten years to

a maximum of life in prison. Brandy Alexander has served in both Georgia and

Florida as a public defender and is preparing to go to trial on behalf of her client,

Demontes Regary Wright, a young man also charged with armed robbery.

The caseloads of these public defenders can be overwhelming: The

average caseload for a public defender in Miami Dade County, Fla. at any one

time is 500 felonies and 225 misdemeanors. It should come as no surprise that

many public defender offices across the nation have an incredibly high turnover

rate. The pace is exhausting, and the legal wrangling intense, but these young

public defenders persevere. Knowing that the stakes are high – and that their

clients’ lives will be deeply affected by what they do or fail to do – they push

themselves to their personal limits over and over again. This is why the defense

of the indigent of our society is more than a job. It’s a vocational calling.

But does their work have to be this difficult? Experts point to the perfect

storm of our nation’s approach to criminal justice as the explanation for the dire

state of indigent defense. In many southern states, bonds for misdemeanor

crimes are exorbitantly high, as high as $40,000 for misdemeanor crimes like

shoplifting, which most defendants cannot afford This leads to the a high rate of

pretrial detention for indigent clients, with many serving months or even years in

prison without a trial. The third factor is the rate of plea bargaining simply to end

pre-trial detention. Notes Brett Willis, a Senior Public Defender featured in the

film, “The reality is 90% or 95% of the people who get charged with something

plead guilty…because the system is designed to force them to plead guilty and it

punishes their failure to comply.”

In addition to lengthy prison sentences, clients found guilty can face

severe civil sanctions, which can result in a litany of extreme punishments,

including: losing eligibility for public benefits, such as federal student loans;

losing the ability to live in public housing with your family; losing the right to vote;

and in some regions, losing the right to hold a driver’s license, which can be a

severe obstacle to finding post-incarceration employment.

Along with the perilous circumstances facing the accused, their public

defenders are typically up against a multitude of trying professional and personal

circumstances, for which no amount of training could prepare them. Notes

Williams: “I have huge student loan debt. After I pay my student loans and my

rent, all I have left is probably $300 a month to pay extra bills like gas and the

car, all that kind of stuff, groceries. But I don’t see how you can do this work for

any period of time and not begin to love it. If you don’t, then it'll just drive you

insane.”

These committed young people are backed by mentor Jonathan Rapping,

the dynamic leader of the Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC),

an Atlanta-based organization designed to fill a void in the training currently

available to young public defenders. The center offers a comprehensive

curriculum designed specifically for public defenders and geared toward the

improvement of indigent defense representation and raising the standard of

practice in jurisdictions nationwide. The group often provides emotional support

in addition to practical instruction as the young public defenders talk about their

work and empathize about their similar situations.

As Rapping states in one of their seminars, “This will be a battle that will

be won, and your children will look back on this struggle to save people from this

unjust, cruel, inhumane criminal justice system. And you all will be the foot

soldiers, you will be the ones who brought that about.”

The U.S. incarcerates more citizens annually than any other industrialized

nation. At the beginning of 2008, 2.3 million Americans were behind bars,

followed by China with 1.5 million. Porter explains, "Americans are fascinated

with crime, and yet few know the truth about how the criminal justice system

really works. GIDEON’S ARMY presents a rare true look at the criminal justice

system from the vantage point of the accused. I wanted to be sure the inspiring,

challenging nature of the work these public defenders do – which involves a

tremendous amount of personal sacrifice in service to our constitutional rights –

was given the attention it deserved."

The film is produced in association with the Ford Foundation.

GIDEON’S ARMY is directed and produced by Dawn Porter; producer,

Julie Goldman; editor, Matthew Hamachek; co-producer Summer Damon;

original music, Paul Brill. For HBO: senior producers, Nancy Abraham and

Jacqueline Glover; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

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HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS GIDEON’S ARMY

Q&A WITH FILMMAKER DAWN PORTER

What inspired you to make a documentary about public defenders?

I am a lawyer, but was never a public defender, and I actually thought they were a little extreme in their devotion to their work. I still think that, but now I find that I am extreme and devoted too. Once I met Jon Rapping, I knew he would be a great character. Then, meeting Brandy, Travis and June, I thought to myself, “These are people who are so relatable and so watchable, people will want to know why they do this tough job.” But in addition to loving these people, what really inspired me is how truly awful our criminal justice system is for millions of poor people. It’s so unfair, and it makes me angry. I want other people to be angry too. I’m generally a positive person and I believe that people will see what’s happening and want to change it. This is your first time making a feature-length film. What was your greatest challenge in making GIDEON'S ARMY? And your biggest surprise? It’s much harder to make a film than I could ever have imagined. You can’t ever stop fundraising, for one thing. Since I live in New Jersey and all my characters are in other states, it was always a challenge to figure out how to get there to film with them.

The logistics of this film, as with any film, were pretty testing. It’s not easy to film in court or prison, so we spent many weeks gaining access to jails and courtrooms in the American South. We were lucky to be able to film in jails in Mississippi and Atlanta and also in courtrooms in Jackson, Gainesville and Atlanta. The true workings of the legal system are surprising and we were able to spend an extended period of time in court documenting what really happens. I also didn’t anticipate how much living with the film’s subjects would affect me emotionally. I saw such heartbreaking things; young people who were innocent pleading guilty to crimes, for example, and I could not help but think of my own two sons and how each mother must have felt so helpless as she watched her child being taken away in handcuffs. That was really hard.

The biggest surprise of all is how people have responded to their stories. I’m a lawyer and I find this subject matter really interesting, but I didn’t know at first if anyone else would – the fact that they do is something I am immensely grateful for. What kind of access did the subjects of the film allow you into their lives and work?

The subjects really allowed full access over the course of three and a half years. We filmed them at home, waking up, getting dressed, with friends exercising, out at night, with their significant others, with their clients, at work. The one restriction, albeit rare, was certain lawyer-client communication that we were not allowed to record. What do you think is the most common misconception about public defenders? The list goes on and on. Many joke that their clients call them “public pretenders.” The biggest misconceptions are that they could not get any other job, that they are lazy and don’t care about their clients, and that they are not skilled. The public defenders in GIDEON’S ARMY are the opposite of those stereotypes in every way. I would proudly and confidently have any one of them represent me or someone I loved. How long did you shoot? The first shoot was in April 2009. We then shot again from July 2009 through October 2012. What do you hope that Sundance audiences take from your film? I hope they will be as inspired as I am by these gifted young people and their unwavering belief that they can make a difference. Despite overwhelming odds they just keep pressing ahead, and they are making a difference. With more than 2.3 million Americans incarcerated, it is likely that at some point you or someone you love with interact with the criminal justice system. We all have a stake in having a fair and just system – unfortunately that’s not the system we have, but we can change it.

HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS GIDEON’S ARMY FILMMAKER BIOS

Dawn Porter (director/producer) Dawn Porter is the founder of Trilogy Films. She is an alumni of the Tribeca All Access program, where she won the 2011 juried Creative Promise Award for GIDEON’S ARMY. Realscreen named Dawn one of their 2012 Doc Hot Shots 15 emerging directors to watch. Other Trilogy projects include SPIES OF MISSISSIPPI for ARTE Germany and PBS, and a documentary about celebrity Chef Alexandra Guarnaschelli for the Cooking Channel. Dawn also works in narrative features as executive producer on SERIOUS MOONLIGHT, written by Adrienne Shelley and starring Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton. SERIOUS MOONLIGHT debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released theatrically by Magnolia Pictures and domestically on Lifetime Movie Network. She is also an executive producer of THE GREEN, an independent feature premiering on Showtime Networks and starring Cheyenne Jackson (30 ROCK) and

Emmy®‐winning actress Julia Ormond. Before becoming a filmmaker she was the director of News Standards and Practices at ABC News, and vice president of Standards and Practices at A&E Networks. Dawn is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Georgetown University Law Center. She was a practicing attorney at Baker & Hostetler and ABC Television Networks before beginning her television career. Julie Goldman (producer) Julie Goldman founded Motto Pictures in 2009. She has produced a wide range of award-winning documentaries, working with a lineup of talented and acclaimed filmmakers. Her documentaries have been featured at the most prestigious film festivals around the world, including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and Berlin. In January 2013, three films that Julie produced will premiere in U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival: GOD LOVES UGANDA, directed by Roger Ross Williams; MANHUNT, directed by Greg Barker; and GIDEON’S ARMY, directed by Dawn Porter. Julie premiered two films at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival: Participant Media’s A PLACE AT THE TABLE, directed by Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush, which will be released by Magnolia Pictures in March 2013, and AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, directed by Alison Klayman, which was recently shortlisted for a 2013 Academy Award®. In 2011, Julie produced BUCK, directed by Cindy Meehl, which won the Sundance Film Festival US Documentary Audience Award. Sundance Selects/IFC Films released BUCK to critical and popular acclaim. It was one of the top-grossing documentaries of the year and was shortlisted for an Academy Award®.

Her 2011 slate of releases also included triple Emmy® nominee BETTER THIS WORLD, directed by Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega, which premiered on POV and won the WGA Award and the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, the acclaimed HBO documentary KORAN BY HEART, directed by Greg Barker, and the Silverdocs Best U.S. Feature award winner OUR SCHOOL, directed by Mona Nicoara. Julie was nominated by the Producers Guild of America for the Producer of the Year Award for SERGIO, directed by Greg Barker. SERGIO was shortlisted for the 2010 Academy Awards® for Documentary Feature and nominated for a Primetime Emmy® Award, and won the Sundance Film Festival Editing Award. She was executive producer of Sundance Audience Award winner IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, which was released by THINKFilm, and producer of SONS OF PERDITION, which launched the Oprah Winfrey Documentary Club on OWN. Julie was a consultant on the Academy Award®-winning THE COVE and Matt Tyrnauer’s acclaimed VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR. Julie’s earlier films include: EASY RIDERS RAGING BULLS, SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY, DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLACK SUN, WHAT REMAINS, ONCE IN A LIFETIME and CAT DANCERS. She has several films that are currently in production: 1971, directed by Johanna Hamilton; Steve James and Raj Patel’s GENERATION FOOD; THE GREAT INVISIBLE, directed by Margaret Brown; REVOLUTION, directed by Greg Barker; and THE KILL TEAM, directed by Dan Krauss.

Matthew Hamachek (editor) Matthew Hamachek's work has aired on HBO, IFC, PBS, BBC and the Discovery Channel. He began his career working on the Oscar-nominated documentary

STREETFIGHT with Marshall Curry, and went on to collaborate with Curry

again on RACING DREAMS, which won Best Documentary at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. Their latest partnership, IF A TREE FALLS, won the Documentary Editing award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. Matthew has worked on a number of

other projects including the non-fiction series FILMSCHOOL with Nanette

Burstein (AMERICAN TEEN), THE ONE PERCENT with Jamie Johnson (BORN RICH), and GIDEON’S ARMY with Dawn Porter. He recently traveled to Morocco as part of the US State Department's American Documentary Showcase to screen RACING DREAMS at universities and cinemas around the country.

HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS GIDEON’S ARMY SUBJECT BIOS

Brandy Alexander After graduating from The Florida State University with Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature, Brandy attended the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Subsequently, Brandy practiced as a Public Defender between Florida and Georgia for six years. June Hardwick Attorney June Hardwick is a Mississippi native and graduate of Murrah High School, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University and Mississippi College School of Law. June is a member of the Magnolia Bar Association, Mississippi Bar Association, the Mississippi Public Defender Association, the Mississippi Association of Drug Court Professionals and New Horizon Church International. June’s first introduction to indigent defense came in 2006 with her clerking with the Mississippi Youth Justice Project (MYJP) of the Southern Poverty Law Center. In 2009, June entered the Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC) for 3 years of intense training. She graduated from SPDTC in January 2012. Travis Williams Travis A. Williams, 30, has worked as a public defender for five years. A native of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., he is a 2005 Graduate of Florida A&M University and a 2008 graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law. Upon graduation from law school, Williams was hired as an assistant public defender at the Hall County, Ga. public defender’s office, where he has spent his entire legal career thus far. Williams was named the 2011 Assistant Public Defender of the Year by the Georgia Association of Circuit Public Defenders, and in 2012 was honored as a “Rising Lawyer Under 40” by the Daily Report, a Georgia legal publication. Williams has tried 23 felony jury trials, losing seven. Of approximately 15 appeals, he has been granted five reversals by the Georgia Court of Appeals. Williams is a volunteer with the Boys and Girls Club of Hall County. He lives in Gainesville, Ga. Jonathan Rapping Jonathan Rapping is an Associate Professor of Law and the Director of the Honors Program in Criminal Justice at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. He is also the Founder and President of the Southern Public Defender Training Center, an organization that is building a community of public defenders across the South to drive indigent defense reform. He trains and supports public defenders all across the country.

Prior to joining the JMLS faculty Professor Rapping was the Chief of Training for the New Orleans Public Defenders and has been instrumental in the rebuilding of that office in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC) The Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC) formed in 2007, is a non-profit organization that seeks to improve the quality of representation for indigent defendants across the Southern United States. It’s mission is to provide outstanding public defender training to young lawyers and to develop a community of SPDTC members, graduates, public defender offices, and other organizations, tied together by the mutual objective to advance standards of public defense, and thereby optimize the collective ability to advocate for systemic indigent defense reform. The SPDTC will be renamed Gideon’s Promise in late January of 2013.

HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS

GIDEON’S ARMY CREDITS

HBO CLICK ON HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS LOGO FRONT CREDITS FORD FOUNDATION and HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS present A TRILOGY FILMS Production in association with MOTTO PICTURES GIDEON’S ARMY END CREDITS DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY Dawn Porter PRODUCED BY Julie Goldman EDITED BY Matthew Hamachek FOR HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Sheila Nevins FOR HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS SENIOR PRODUCERS Nancy Abraham Jacqueline Glover CO-PRODUCER Summer Damon LINE PRODUCER Carolyn Hepburn CINEMATOGRAPHY BY Chris Hilleke Patrick Sheehan ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSED BY Paul Brill

STORY CONSULTANT Christopher Clements ASSOCIATE EDITOR Phil Raymond ASSISTANT EDITORS Tim Kauffeld Hannah Gregg Lulu Fries D’estat Tina Grapenthin ADDITIONAL CAMERA OPERATORS Derek Boyd Hannah Gregg Derek Hallquist Chris Mendes James Peterson Dawn Porter SOUND RECORDISTS Patrick Sheehan James Peterson Wayne Reynolds TRILOGY FILMS OFFICE MANAGER Kamilah Clark WRITERS Dawn Porter Matthew Hamachek STILL PHOTOGRAPHER Dawn Porter TITLE DESIGN Allison Moore DI COLORIST Will Cox ONLINE EDITOR Owen Rucker ONLINE SERVICES Final Frame SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR / RE-RECORDING MIXER Christopher Barnett

SOUND CONSULTANT Al Nelson SOUND EFFECTS EDITOR Jon Borland MIX TECHNICIAN Tony Villalfor POST PRODUCTION SOUND FACILITY Skywalker Sound PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS Andrew Beirut Duc Khoi Dang Hannah Gregg Tim Kauffeld LEGAL COUNSEL Drew Patrick, Esq. PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANT Marcy Crimmins WEBSITE Nicole Becher TRANSCRIPTIONS Sara Barnes Terri Hankins SPECIAL THANKS Grace Akan Kate Amend Nathan Appel Nicholas Ashby Jake Bandman Julie Parker Benello Phil Benson Adam Benzine Barbara Caver John Countryman Marshall Curry The Honorable Judge Jason Deal Natalie Difford Sandi Dubowski Lewis Erskine Wendy Ettinger Kristin Feeley The Honorable Paul Fishman Doug Ford

Barbara Freund Ryan Friis The Honorable Judge C. Andrew Fuller Frank Grant The Honorable Judge Tomie Green Ryan Harrington Maya Harris Angel Harris Judith Helfand Heather Hendrix The Honorable Eric Holder Lucy Huggins Heather Humphrey Inkaholics Tattoo Parlor Beth Janson Jodi Johnson Wright Jones Leeta Jordan William Labarre Sharon LaCruise Sheila Leddy Michael Levine Brian Long Sean Lyness Vik Malhotra Mary Manhardt Raha Maxwell Elise McCave Cara Mertes H. Bradford Morris, Jr. Tamir Muhammad Joe Neal Donna Nordan The Honorable Judge Bonnie Oliver Marion Pendleton Jennie Pitts Eva Porter Jeannine Roberts Jose Rodriguez Jane Rosenthal The Honorable Judge Matthew O. Simmons Skydive ASC Jess Search Kerry Smith The SPDTC Class of 2009 Sundance Documentary Edit Lab Caitlin Tartaro John Turpin Christine A. Van Dross The Wright Family Fevie Wright

Joe Zeff Designs The Gainesville Public Defender’s Office The Clayton County Public Defender’s Office The Hinds County Public Defender’s Office VERY SPECIAL THANKS Brandy Alexander June Hardwick Travis Williams Brett Willis Sharon Lewis Branden Mullin Jacquise Welchel Demontes Wright Orlando Bagwell Kirsten Levingston Jonathan Rapping Ilham Askia Elayne Rapping Aliyah Rapping Lucas Rapping David Graff Eli Graff Will Graff Coraine Hope MUSIC CONSULTANT Jonathan McHugh “True Believers” Performed by BizoH & Greg Cahn Writer: R. Samath/ O. Doniz/ G. Cahn & B. Hicks Produced by Ruwanga Samath & O. Doniz for The Bird Call Productions. Courtesy of The Bird Call Productions & Song Stew Entertainment "Your Hand In Mine" Music by Christopher Hrasky, Michael Aaron James, Munaf Rayani, Mark Thomas Smith Performed by Explosions in the Sky From the album The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (p) 2003 Temporary Residence, Ltd. Fiscal Sponsor – Women Make Movies SPDTC has changed its name to Gideon’s Promise. In 2012 they graduated their largest class of new Public Defenders.

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