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SFFILM Festival

Defender

Directed by Jeff Adachi, Jim Choi

USA | 70

15 Apr
Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 3:00 pm PT

Description

This insightful documentary focuses on San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi as he and his team take on the high-profile case of 22-year-old Michael Smith, who pleads not guilty after he is charged with nine counts of resisting arrest. Pulled off a BART train along with his girlfriend, Smith is wrestled to the ground, the arrest captured on the attending officers’ body cameras. Adachi employs the images from the cameras to advance the case that Smith’s arrest and the rough treatment he received on the BART platform were racially motivated. Moreover, he avers in the documentary, his client’s odyssey in the criminal justice system was evidence of black-crime bias in ostensibly liberal SF. But more than just an exposé of racism, Defender also shines a light on Adachi and his long career. Shown on the job—getting Smith to the courtroom, consulting with colleagues on the case, and discussing strategy and outcomes—and in private, early morning moments at the gym where he can’t quite get away from work, running into an old client as he works out, Adachi is low-key and affable. But percolating beneath that placid surface is a lifelong passion for social justice, ignited when he was a small boy learning that his family was among those interned during World War II and finding its purpose in his long service with the public defender’s office. This is a free community screening and shows with The Boombox Collection: Zion I (Mohammad Gorjestani, USA 2016, 10 min), a portrait of Stephen Gaines aka Zumbi, the frontman of Oakland hip-hop duo Zion I. —Pam Grady

Director Jeff Adachi, Jim Choi

San Francisco voters elected Jeff Adachi Public Defender in 2001. Before that, he served in the office as Deputy Public Defender (1986-1998) and Chief Attorney (1998-2001). Adachi is also a documentary filmmaker whose work include The Slanted Screen (2006), You Don’t Know Jack: The Jack Soo Story (2009), and America Needs a Racial Facial (2016).

An alumnus of the Rhode Island School of Design, Jim Choi serves as cinematographer on Defender as well as co-director. Among Choi’s other films are Don’t Lose Your Soul (2017), Changing Seasons (2015), and The People’s Hospital (2015). He served as director of photography on Jake Shimabukuro: Life On Four Strings (2012). He earned an Emmy nomination for his cinematography on Lost and Found: Legacy of USS Lagarto (2009). 

Film Details

Language English

Year 2017

Premiere World

Runtime 70

Country USA

Director Jeff Adachi, Jim Choi

Producer Jeff Adachi

Editor Chihiro Wimbush

Cinematographer Jim Choi

Music DISINTERESTED