Down a Dark Stairwell
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Synopsis: Available June 9th from 7:00pm – 11:00pm Only! Available in the state of Oregon only.
Set in motion by a tragic police-involved shooting, two communities of color navigate fraught perceptions of injustice, inequality, and discrimination in the eyes of the law. When a Chinese-American police officer kills an unarmed black man in a darkened stairwell of a New York City housing project, it sets off a firestorm of emotion and fractured calls for justice. When he becomes the first NYPD officer to be convicted in a decade, the meaning of justice itself becomes complicated, pitting two marginalized communities against one another in a virulent fight against the system and igniting the largest Asian-American protest in U.S. history.
Run Time
Directed by
Produced by
Rajal Pitroda
Executive Producer
Lois Vossen
Edited by
Jason Harper
Cinematographer
Rachel Lears
Justin Ervin
Brian Chu
Derek Howard
Lyric Cabral
Asad Faruqi
Jason Chau
Tinx Chan
Vanessa Carr
Nelson Walker
Nausheen Dadabhoy
Director's Statement
The scale of the protests related to this case were unlike anything I had seen before, and I was driven to capture history as it happened. On the surface this story was very explosive, but the real root of the discord is systemic and aggravated by the divisive political times we are living in, and that was not always clear in short-soundbite media coverage. My goal was to look for more intimate and honest conversations that would help people understand what happened in a different way and listen to what’s actually being said. I want to keep nuanced conversations about race, policing, and justice in the forefront and challenge audiences to question who really benefits when legacies of solidarity are disrupted.