Charm City

In Baltimore, the murder rate is high and trust in law enforcement is low—meet the engaged citizens reversing those trends in Charm City.

Freddie Gray
Series
Independent Lens
Premiere Date
April 22, 2019
Length
90 minutes
  • Nominated laurels-r Created with Sketch.
    2019 News and Documentary Emmy Awards-Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary
  • Producer/Director

    Marilyn Ness

    Marilyn Ness is a two-time EmmyⓇ, Peabody, and DuPont Award winning filmmaker, is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and works as a producer and a director. Her most recent film, Cameraperson (dir. Kirsten Johnson) premiered at Sundance 2016, was released by the Criterion Collection, and was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Show more AwardsⓇ. Trapped (dir. Dawn Porter), which premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, received the Jury Prize for Social Impact Filmmaking, broadcast on PBS, and was awarded a Peabody. She also produced Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman’s feature documentary E-Team, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2014 and was bought by Netflix Original, and later earned two EmmyⓇ nominations. Ness also produced Johanna Hamilton’s feature documentary 1971 which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, broadcast on Independent Lens in 2015, and earned an EmmyⓇ nomination. She directed the documentary feature film Bad Blood: A Cautionary Tale that broadcast nationally on PBS in 2011. Show less

    Producer

    Katy Chevigny

    Katy Chevigny is an award-winning filmmaker and co-founder of Big Mouth Productions. Most recently, she produced Dark Money, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and she directed one of the storylines in Kartemquin Films’ documentary series Hard Earned, winner of a 2016 Alfred I. DuPont Award, which explores the lives of five American Show more families struggling to get by in today's economy. She co-directed (with Ross Kauffman) the EmmyⓇ-nominated documentary E-TEAM, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Chevigny has produced and/or directed 12 critically acclaimed feature-length documentary films through Big Mouth, including Deadline, Election Day and also 1971 with Marilyn Ness. Her work has won multiple awards, been broadcast on networks including PBS, NBC, HBO, Netflix, Arte/ZDF and has played at festivals around the world. Show less

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    The Film

    Filmed over three tumultuous years covering the lead up to, and aftermath of, Freddie Gray’s death in police custody in 2015, this is an unflinching portrait of the city’s impoverished and hope-starved streets. With trust broken, homicides rampant, and neighborhoods suffering, devoted community leaders, sympathetic law-enforcement officers and a progressive city councilman try to stem the epidemic of violence. The film’s subjects intersect in unpredictable ways to move beyond the roiling distrust and fight for a better future in Charm City.

    Topics