American Skin

A year after his fourteen-year-old son was shot by a police officer at a traffic stop, Lincoln learns the grand jury has declined to bring charges. Working as a school night guard, he takes the camera his son's friends are using for a documentary and sets out to hold his own trial inside a police station. Nate Parker wrote, directed and starred. The film runs on two layers: what happens inside is recorded through the students' camera, as documentary footage. That choice puts the viewer in the position of whoever is keeping the record. At the centre is judgment itself: Lincoln asks the officers and his hostages the same questions and puts the answers to a vote. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. Nate Parker's personal controversies from an earlier period directly affected its reception and made distribution difficult. The tone is angry and direct; subtlety is not the aim. Who it is for: viewers ready for openly political films about police violence and justice. Who it is not for: anyone seeking a balanced frame; the film argues a case.