A Call Away
Oklahoma is one of 26 states with a “failure to protect” law, which prosecutes parents who fail to prevent child abuse. Critics say the law disproportionately criminalizes women.

- Series
- Independent Lens
- Premiere Date
- February 17, 2020
- Length
- 9:08 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Short-Form Series and Special Projects
Crystal Kayiza
Crystal Kayiza was raised in Oklahoma and is now a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” she is a recipient of the 2018 Sundance Ignite Fellowship and 2017 Jacob Burns Film Center Woman Filmmaker Fellowship. Her most recent short film, See You Next Time, aired on Starz and was an official selection… Show more
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The Film
Oklahoma is one of 26 states with a “failure to protect” law, which prosecutes parents who fail to prevent child abuse. The ACLU and other groups say this law disproportionately criminalizes female victims of domestic violence, leading mothers to serve harsher sentences than the child abusers themselves. A Call Away tells the story of Clorinda Archuleta, a mother of two and victim of domestic violence. Clorinda, who is currently serving three consecutive life sentences under the Oklahoma law, was arrested after doctors discovered her partner abused their children. A Call Away follows Clorinda’s struggle to have her sentence commuted and traces the cycle of family separation and trauma in Tulsa County.