Natural Life

For more than fifteen years, video artist and documentary filmmaker Tirtza Even has created a body of work that addresses an array of complex social and political issues in Palestine, Turkey, Spain, Germany, and the U.S. Her latest project, NATURAL LIFE, tells the stories of 5 youths who received the most severe sentence available for convicted adults - a sentence of life without parole (natural life). The youthful status and/or lesser culpability of these youths, their background and the circumstances leading to their crime, as well as their potential for rehabilitation, were not taken into account at any point in the charging and sentencing process. The five will never be evaluated for change, difference or growth. They will remain in prison till they die.
　　Pairing interviews with inmates and those involved in their cases (family members, attorneys, police officers, and victims) with documented and staged scenes, Even’s film is an elegant and unflinching challenge to the inequities of the juvenile justice system.