American Violet (2009)

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American Violet was released on April 17, 2009, in the USA. The American drama film was produced by Uncommon Productions. The movie storyline was written by Bill Haney, and directed by Tim Disney. [1]. The film is based on the true story of Regina Kelly. She is reported for dealing drugs although she never does it in her entire life[2].

Plot

Dee and Alma in American Violet [3]

Dee Roberts (Nicole Roberts), a mother of four children, is a poor waitress in Texas. While she is at work, her children stay with her mother Alma (Alfre Woodard) in the housing project. Dee struggles to fulfill their needs and fights for the right to live with her children as her ex-husband Darrel Hughes (Xzibit) lives with a woman who has done child abuse. One day, while Dee is working, Calvin Beckett (Michael O'Keefe), a district attorney, leads a drug sweep to the housing project. Dee is arrested and at first, she thought that she is charged for a parking ticket. However, she is charged for dealing drugs to school children. She is told by Beckett that if she takes the plea, she would be imprisoned for 10 years, but if not then, she will be imprisoned for up to 25 years. As her mother insists she take the plea, David Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson) and Byron hill (Malcolm Barrett), an attorney of (ACLU), come and are going to assist her if she wants to prove that she is innocent. Throughout the case, they crack up the corruption within the judicial system toward poor people especially African Americans. In the end, Dee is proved as innocent while DA Calvin Beckett's hatred towards African Americans is one of the motives to initiate the drug raid[4].

Controversy

Prejudice towards African Americans is shown in the movie. DA Calvin Beckett's hatred towards African Americans is exposed at the end of the movie while Dee is released from her accusations. Moreover, the movie portrays how the judicial system within Texas is corrupted as David explains "Drug task forces use military tactics to terrorize poor people. Meanwhile, federal money goes to the counties that convict the most people, and plea bargains are aggressively enforced to hasten those convictions". To sum up, the film has revealed that drug raid is actually used as the raid towards African Americans[5].

References