GHETTO

Is the American War on Drugs a genocide in disguise?

While the Iraq War rages, another war continues, unnoticed, unreported, and yet it has taken more lives than the Iraq war, destroyed more families, orphaned more children, and, like the Iraq War, holds significant global implications. It is the American Drug War, whose current incarnation dates back to Richard Nixon but whose deeper origins lie farther back in the
American story.

Black Americans today represent 12% of the U.S. population. They do not statistically use drugs more or less than Whites. Yet 85% of those sentenced to prison for drug violations in America are Black. In Washington and in the media, this disparity has been called “racial-profiling” – the work of a handful of “bad apple” police officers disproportionately targeting
Black Americans.

The documentary GHETTO will examine whether something more systemic is at work than simple police misconduct. Director Eugene Jarecki, whose most recent work WHY WE FIGHT examined the anatomy of the American war machine, will turn the same penetrating lens to the American War on Drugs – in an historical and international context.

In production, looking for pre-buys and co-production

Release year:

Fall 2009

Director:

Eugene Jarecki

Running length:

60 / 90 minutes

Production company:

Charlotte Street Films

 

Categories:

• Feature Lenghts
• Social, Political & History