Joe Berlinger
There’s a new series examining the U.S. criminal justice system, and award-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger ’83 is perfectly suited for the role of director and executive producer.
“The System” is an eight-part series for Al-Jazeera America that will tackle topics like false confessions, mandatory sentencing, and the treatment of juvenile offenders, according to The Wrap entertainment website.
Berlinger is all-too familiar with certain inequalities in the justice system, having directed the Paradise Lost trilogy about the “West Memphis Three” case. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory was nominated for an Oscar in 2012.
Read about how Berlinger and another Colgate alumnus, Dennis Riordan ’70, helped prove the innocence of the “West Memphis Three” teenagers in this Colgate Scene article.
Al-Jazeera America’s “The System” will debut March 16 with an episode about flawed forensic evidence.
Berlinger has also been in the news recently because of his documentary about mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, who was sentenced in November 2013. Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month. Although Berlinger emphasizes that the film is not an apology for Bulger, “There are important questions of government corruption in the Whitey Bulger case,” he told the Ottawa Citizen.