LOCKDOWN USA

DC Premiere

"We're getting tough on drugs and we mean business." -Ronald Reagan.

The Rockefeller drug laws, enacted in 1973 by New York's then-Governor Rockefeller, were the harshest drug laws of any democratic nation in the world, and 48 states followed New York in implementing them. Since then, the war on drugs has cost 200 billion dollars. The US now has the world's highest percentage of its population incarcerated, many on drug charges.

Michael Skolnik's LOCKDOWN, USA begins with the observation that while only 13 percent of drug users in the US are African American, 74 percent of people sent to jail for drug use are African American. Many of them-such as Darryl Best, a dedicated father of five and first-time offender serving 15 years-serve sentences grossly disproportionate to their crimes.

At the center of LOCKDOWN, USA is millionaire hip-hop impressario Russell Simmons, who works with Democratic politician Andrew Cuomo and former NAACP head Ben Chavis to raise awareness of the injustice inherent in the laws. They sponsor a rally in Manhattan featuring 50 Cent, P-Diddy and Mariah Carey-but the publicity isn't enough to keep the legislature on target regarding reform.

Simmons muses with a touch of self-deprecation, "I can get the Governor on the phone cause I sell records." But he learns that the rules of politics are not those of a business based on street cred: "If I treated my artists like this, I'd be dead."

LOCKDOWN, USA is about injustice, power imbalance, violations of due process, and the struggle to make the system responsive to the needs of real people throughout our society. Can power fuel a decades-long political battle to change deeply entrenched laws?

-Patricia Finneran

DIRECTOR BIOS
Michael Skolnik most recently co-directed the award winning feature film, ON THE OUTS, which was nominated for a 2005 IFP Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. In 1997, Skolnik founded Equal Opportunity Productions (EqOp), an arts organization created to help address the lack of curricular arts programming in inner-city schools. Michael is on the board of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival.

Rebecca Chaiklin is the co-founder of Article 19 Films. She is currently co-directing a feature documentary entitled CRY HAITI with Michael Skolnik, and producing BLING: A PLANET ROCK. Rebecca was both co-director and producer on THE LAST PARTY 2000, a feature documentary on the 2000 presidential elections.

Print Source:
Josh Green
Emerging Pictures
245 West 55th Street
4th Floor
New York, NY 10019
212.245.6767
josh@emergingpictures.com

6/18 at 5:30 PM

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