Women on Trial | |
---|---|
Directed by | Lee Grant |
Produced by | Joseph Feury Lee Grant Virginia Cotts Roberta Morris Purdee |
Narrated by | Lee Grant |
Cinematography | Hart Perry |
Edited by | Geof Bartz |
Music by | Tom Carpenter |
Distributed by | HBO Hope Runs High [1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 57 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Women on Trial is a 1992 documentary film directed by Academy Award winner Lee Grant. The film follows a group of women navigating the family court system in Texas. Originally scheduled to aired on HBO, the film played only a single night before being pulled from the public after inciting a million dollar lawsuit initiated Texas family court judge Charles Dean Huckabee. The story unfolds as woman after woman loses custody of her children to fathers who have either a documented history of abuse, or admittedly do not want custody of the children. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Women on Trial was produced under Grant and husband/producer Joseph Feury's production deal with HBO. Grant became interest after seeing the number of women losing custody of their children to allegedly abusive fathers in Harris County, Texas.
The film received positive reviews. Before the film was pulled, disappearing for the next 27 years, Variety felt that it was "chilling...starkly moving." [6]
The film is part of Grant's documentary collection and is expected to receive a digital and limited repertory cinema re-release in the Winter of 2019-2020 along with the majority of her non-fiction work. A screening at New York's Film Forum in December 2019 will mark the film's first public exhibition since its single night on HBO. [1]
Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1 (2004), was a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit, originally filed as Newdow v. United States Congress, Elk Grove Unified School District, et al. in 2000, led to a 2002 ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance are an endorsement of religion and therefore violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The words had been added by a 1954 act of Congress that changed the phrase "one nation indivisible" into "one nation under God, indivisible". After an initial decision striking the congressionally added "under God", the superseding opinion on denial of rehearing en banc was more limited, holding that compelled recitation of the language by school teachers to students was invalid.
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