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REAL TO REEL - September 9 -18,
USA, 1999
90 minutes * Colour/35mm
Print Source/Foreign Sales Agent:
Production: BY SEAN FARNEL
"All seems infected that th' infected spy In 1989 Stephen Matthews and his father Melvin were sentenced to 35 years in prison, convicted of sexually abusing Stephen's five-year-old son. The child's accusations, including torture with a machete, were harrowing. No physical evidence was presented, but listening to the boy's powerful testimony, you can sense how members of the jury shut themselves off and slipped into decisiveness. That Stephen Matthews is gay was clearly not reassuring to the older jury in rural Michigan. Documenting the Matthews' decade-long quest for exoneration, The Jaundiced Eye (from the producing team behind the acclaimed documentary Waco: The rules of Engagement) is a razor- sharp addition to the explosive debate over how sexual abuse cases involving children are prosecuted. Driven by Stephen's ex-wife and the child's admittedly homophobic stepfather, the charges quickly gained hysteric momentum. Following insinuating reports in the local media, business at the once-thriving family-owned bait shop dropped off. Neighbors were evasive, and the Matthews family began receiving threatening phone calls. Paralleling a series of questionable convictions in the late eighties, the Matthews' case surfaced just as research into child "suggestibility" (the extent to which questions by adult interviewers can lead a child to a false recollection of events) was mounting. A divisive debate among child psychologists has emerged, and while the consensus is that the vast majority of child sexual abuse accusations are true, irreparable damage is done to those wrongly accused. It's a high-stakes debate, with dramatic consequences. This riveting analysis balances the human, scientific and legal aspects of this complex case with amazing precision and clarity. Unfolding with ease, the film does not dwindle into a tug of war between factions, and never loses track of the drama for all involved. The results are devastating, both for the Matthews family and the child. Now 18, he has clearly been indoctrinated into the delusions and homophobia which forever changed the lives of the people closest to him. Nonny de la Peņa began her career as a journalist doing an internship with CNN. She has been a correspondent in Mexico, working for "Time" magazine and "Newsweek" magazine, and also worked as an associate producer for HBO. She enjoys a prolific career writing and producing for television. The Jaundiced Eye (99) is her latest feature documentary. 24th Toronto International Film Festival, September 9-18,1999. |