Film Review: The House I Live In (15), (Netherlands/U.K./Germany/Japan/Australia/U.S.A. 2012) (Director: Eugene Jarecki), Saturday 22.12.2012 20:35, The Filmhouse, Screen Three, Edinburgh

This is a documentary about the failure of the U.S.'s Governments war on illicit drugs, and is also the most detailed account I have seen as to how a country's situation with illicit drugs has got to the point it has, and how and why the status quo is difficult to move away from. It felt very balanced in its presenting of the issues.

I had not appreciated previously that the laws that developed in regard criminalising drug use, were initially so explicit in directly giving authorities the means to criminalise migrant communities (opium = Chinese, Marijuana = Mexican). Then in more recent times with the demise of the manufacturing sector and traditional blue-collar workers loosing jobs (a large percentage of which were white) came the rise of production of methamphetamine, resulting in a significant proportion of the non-violent long-term prison population being white. This means that an issue that was driven by race is now also more broadly speaking a class issue.

Other intriguing elements included the fact that convictions relating to crack-cocaine are significantly disproportionate to convictions for cocaine, and this has been due to legal stipulations. In connection to this, if my memory serves correct 90% of convictions in regard to crack-cocaine are of African-Americans, yet the predominant users are white Americans, so again the issue of race appears. Further to this, there is incentives to police to concentrate on low-level arrests in regard to drugs, than say murder as it is so much easier to resolve, and there fill in sheets about and make extra on the basic wage. For politicians chasing reelection on a short-term basis, it makes no sense to take the risk of proposing a greater focus on care rather than incarceration, as the time it takes to produce results from a new approach could jeopardise their chance of election. Their is also the fact that there is now a whole economy built around the prison system, involving corporations with a lot of finance and clout as well as communities who are dependent upon the current prison set up.

There were also interesting parallels drawn between the current prison system in regard to drug charges and incidents in other countries of genocide; the demonising of drug users, to criminalising them, seeing them as the enemy (what is holding the community back), containing them, using forced labor while contained and due to variously length of sentence, incidents in jail or during drug busts that lead to their demise, preventing their contributing to increasing the population. David Simon, who's research was behind the T.V. Series 'The Wire' termed it as like a 'holocaust in slow motion' or a way is putting away the bottom 15% from society.    

There were judges, prison guards and police officers who were plainly speaking from their experience as to how the approach that has ramped up over the past few decades has simply not worked. There was also focus given to how this has affected specific individuals and their families. It did not feel overly depressing, and I suspect this is due to the amount of people who spoke with specific insight as to the hows and whys it was not working and identifying the clear inherent prejudice as to how the policies are implemented; the film could almost be seen as a document to present as evidence as to why the current approach has to change. Though it is David Simon again who points out, that the instigation of change is not able to come from politicians, rather it has to come from the insistence of the populous.

This is a searing, damming and angering documentary and should be seen by all, whether currently in possession of a social conscious or not. It is that great and important a film.                       

Rating: 10/10

2012: Thirteen Flawless Films To Date In Order Of Release:

1. Magic Trip (Documentary)
2. Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (Turkish) 
3. Goodbye First Love (French)
4. The Dark Knight Rises
5. Searching For Sugar Man (Documentary) 
6. Anna Karenina
7. About Elly (Iranian) 
8. Tabu (Portuguese)
9. Frankenweenie
10. Skyfall  
11. Amour (French)
12. The House I Live In (Documentary)
13. The Hunt (Danish)