The Trials of Darryl Hunt | DVD Review

Official 2006 Sundance selection, The Trials of Daryl Hunt (Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg) is an intensely focused, highly compelling study of racism and miscarriage of justice in North Carolina, almost twenty years in the making. It is the story of young black man wrongly accused of the rape and murder of a young white woman and the blatant ignorance and criminal negligence of the justice system which condemns and nearly destroys Daryl Hunt, while covering up its own errors and allowing the actual killer to remain at large. It is bizarre to watch the proceedings, and the court constantly denying a man his freedom (19 years of jail time) in the face of wholly unreliable witnesses, a lack of a murder weapon and even DNA evidence. The prosecution seems to desperately grasp at any possible scenario which may allow that they had the right criminal all along.

Even when the man is finally released, it is with prejudice. We learn of police intimidation of real witnesses and the viewer can only imagine that the entire system is trying to erase all trace of its shoddy prosecution and save face while a man longs for freedom. As angering as the film can be, it is also inspiring to watch Hunt remain gentle, strong and hopeful, even thankful to his supporters, friends and defense lawyers with a true sense of justice–by the end of the film, which is full of candid moments of his support team, we know that all these men have suffered along with Hunt. It is a familiar story of racism and a corrupt legal system; but the filmmakers, using archival as well as present day footage, crime scene photos, audio recordings, court proceedings and compassionate interviews of most everyone involved with the case (minus the arresting/interrogating officers) manage to envelope the viewer with the story.

There is an apology at the beginning of the film regarding some of the sound and visual qualities of the degraded source material. This is obviously unavoidable, and the exclusion of these aspects would detract from the thoroughness and realism. To their credit, the filmmakers have transferred the source material to anamorphic wide-screen, and this certainly helps.

The sound is 5.1 stereo and the marching, ambient musical soundtrack comes of as quite haunting and evocative. It works well combined with the film.

There are a decent supply of extras, including deleted scenes and bonus interviews with those involved with the case and an especially poignant 24 minute HBO interview with Regina Lane, a woman who fought off the real killer, whose profile fit strikingly with Hunt’s case, while he was incarcerated. The police silenced Lane and chose to ignore the obvious lead.

A thoroughly well-crafted documentary, captivating and devastating for its entirety.

Movie rating – 5

Disc Rating – 4