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Take an animated journey through the first 24 hours after arrest in New Orleans, when an individual is processed into jail, held overnight, and then brought shackled to court for the first time. "First Disappearances" connects multiple stories into one collective account to give you a vivid feel for what it's like to be "locked inside of a box inside of a box with shackles on my feet."
First Disappearances | holding bodies, Episode 1
The three-part holding bodies: a justice anthology uses personal experiences of arrest, pretrial detention, and incarceration to reconsider the intention, design, and process of America’s justice system.
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More About Independent Lens
@independentlens is America’s home for independent documentary film. Each week the award-winning series delivers engaging documentaries crafted by the industry’s boldest filmmakers. Independent Lens films have won 19 EmmyⓇ Awards, 16 Peabody Awards, five duPont-Columbia University Awards, and have received 10 Academy Award nominations. Independent Lens won the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2022 International Documentary Association (IDA) Award for Best Continuing Series.
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Executive Producers
Audrey Rosenberg
Jess Jacobs
Carrie Lozano
Lois Vossen
Director
Milan Daemgen
Producer
Alex P. Willson
Cassandra Rumping
Milan Daemgen
Executive In Charge of Production
Royd Chung
Senior Manager, Short-Form Content
Pamela Torno
Supervising Producer
Susan Cohen
Consulting Producer
Clare Chambers
Production Coordinator
Nora Mohamed
Animator
Gurleen Rai
Editor
Adam Sekuler
Additional Editing
Nitzan Saar
Milan Daemgen
Animation Plate Photographer
Hennen Payne
Daniela Leal
Jail Photo References
Zac Manuel
Composer, Sound Design, Mix & Master
Ajai Combelic
Additional Cinematography
Zac Manuel
Paavo Hanninen
Milan Daemgen
Hennen Payne
Alex P. Willson
Voice Over
Douglas Wilcox II
Interview Subjects
Bobby Wallace
Dominique Minor
Ed Johnson
Isaac Knapper
Jerome Morgan
Jude Braud
Keisha Edwards
Kenneth "Biggy" Johnson
Kiana Calloway
Meghan Garvey
Michael Henn
Montrell Harris
Oscar Carter
Roy Brumfield
Sabrina Carter
Steve Singer
Taetrace Harrison
Production Assistance Provided By
Greenhouse Collective
Wandering Cameras
Fiscal Sponsor
NOVAC
Special Thanks
Alfred Marshall
April Dayok
Chike Ozah
Darcy McKinnon
Former Chief Orleans Public Defender Derwyn Bunton
Glen Petre & Michelle Benoit
Grant Hallmark & Amy Rodenberger
Jason Williams & Staff at Orleans District Attorney's Office
Jee Park & Staff at Innocence Project New Orleans
Jennifer Medbery
Josh Cox
Lindsey Hortenstein & Staff at Orleans Public Defenders
Melody Chang
Molly Fowler
New Orleans Safety & Freedom Fund
Rob Kazik & Staff at Orleans Criminal Court
Syrita Steib & Staff at Operation Restoration
Vera Institute
Voice of the Experienced
William Snowden
Artist Support Provided By
New Orleans Film Society – Emerging Voices
Funding Provided By
National Performance Network Grant
Southern Documentary Fund
Elizabeth Monaghan
Olivia Woollam
David Barksdale
Independent Lens Short-Form Funding Provided By:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Acton Family Giving
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Ford Foundation
Wyncote Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Holding Bodies: A Justice Anthology is a co-production of Sonder, LLC and Independent Television Service (ITVS), with funding provided by the Corporation For Public Broadcasting (CPB). This program was produced by Sonder, LLC which is solely responsible for its content.
© 2023 Sonder, LLC All Rights Reserved.
(dramatic music) (door banging) - [Speaker 1] The first
time I was arrested, I was 19 years old. - [Speaker 2] 26 at the time. - [Speaker 3] I was 17.
- [Speaker 4] 16 years old - [Speaker 5] 19 years old. - [Speaker 6] I just turned
16 years old. - [Speaker 7] I was 17 when
I was arrested. - [Speaker 8] My arrest seems
like it was yesterday. - [Speaker 9] Like it
was yesterday. - [Speaker 10] We had a
family gathering at the house. - [Speaker 11] I was getting
ready to take a friend to a doctor
's appointment. - [Speaker 12] Me and about
three or four of my cousins and my brother were all standing in front of our home.
- [Speaker 13] On the corner. - [Speaker 14] I was in bed. - [Speaker 15] They had
just gotten out the shower. - [Speaker 16] Two or
and more cars passed. One stopped, one kept going.
(tires screech) When they stopped, he
hopped out of the car. - [Speaker 17] He come
to the house - [Speaker 18] And I heard
banging on the door. - [Speaker 19] Didn't sound
like a neighbor
knocking. - [Speaker 20] My mother
answered the door, and they just barged
their way in. - [Speaker 21] They had their
hand near their firearms. - [Speaker 22] Draw their
guns, asked me to get up. They twist my arms,
put the cuffs on me. I had on nothing but
my underwear. - [Speaker 23] Everybody
that was on the corner at that time was arrested. - [Speaker 24] I'm asking them,
"Why am I being arrested?" They told me they couldn't
tell me any of that. I had to come with them. (police radio chatte
rs) - [Speaker 25] I remember
a lot of people outside watching me get into the car, watching everybody pass by and in your mind you thinking if you ever gonna see
these people... (sirens blaring) (dramatic music) (police radio chatter) - [Speaker 26] When we make
it there to central lockup, they get me out the car,
I'm handcuffed. I'm looking around like,
"What is this place? "What's going on here?" (metal clanking) - [Speaker 27] I just remember
going down the corridor, going into the precinct,
where they have all these
people being detained. First thing they ask you to do is take everything out of
your pocket, tag it, bag it. - [Speaker 28] You know
they pressed my finger on everything. They took my mug shot,
told me to stand up, like I'm posing for a
picture and turn sideways. - [Speaker 29] And they
put you in a holding cell. - [Speaker 30] When they
shut that door behind me, (cell door slamming)
Boom! I stopped and I just looked. 90% of the people that
are in here, they all gonna
stop
doing what they're doing and look at you. - [Speaker 31] All these
different faces, everybody in there for
different reasons. - [Speaker 32] Different
vibes running through that cage in there. - You got frustration,
constant moving. - [Speaker 33] It's a
small jungle that you be trapped inside of. - [Speaker 34] You have a
big pot of gumbo in one cell and it's all different flavors. - [Speaker 35] It feels
like you're drowning. - [Speaker 36] They came through with some cold sandwiches. - [
Speaker 37] Cold bologna
sandwiches. The meat was frozen. - [Speaker 38] I didn't have
an appetite to eat so I just used my
sandwich for a pillow. - [Speaker 39] Then they call
three people out every few hours and be
booked and they take you, cattle you down, line
you up against the wall. A few deputies stand on
the opposite side and they make everybody at
once take off their clothes. You have to bend over, touch
your ankles with one hand, use your other hand to
open your butt cheeks. You have t
o cough. And then sometime when
they really wanna dehumanize you, "Cough
harder." (imitates coughing) - [Speaker 40] They ask
you your size jumper and they give you
a orange jumper with some slippers and
you know towels and soap. If you pick the wrong
jumper, you stuck with it. If it's too small,
you stuck with it. It's too big, you stuck with it. - [Speaker 41] They moved
me upstairs, third floor to an area in HOD. - [Speaker 42] CCC.
They put me in the back. - [Speaker 43] I want to say
it was
three cells down there. (cell door closing) - [Speaker 44] The bed was
uncomfortable. Pillow was uncomfortable. - [Speaker 45] I couldn't sleep. I would take my fingers and
try and hold my eyes open to keep from falling asleep. But eventually your
body wears down and we have no control over it. (gentle music) (baton bangs against cell bars) - [Speaker 46] Woke up at
about 4:30, 5:00, rack the cells. This time he walks up
to the cell and he's gonna call names. Your name is called. - [Edward] Edw
ard Johnson.
- [Isaac] Isaac Knapper. - [Jerome] Jerome Morgan.
- [Jude] Jude Braud. - [Speaker 47] Told I
had a court date They asked you, "Do you
wanna take a shower?" I had more confusion,
terror and anxiety than the drops that
fell out the shower head in over three minutes.
(water running) - [Speaker 48] Then they
bring you in a line up. Throw some waist chains,
shackles and handcuffs at your feet. - [Speaker 49] They take one
of your legs and they attach them to
another person's leg. - [Spe
aker 50] The guard would
be holding the front chain like we animals and he would
pull us, we follow him. (chains clinking) - [Speaker 51] They put so
many people in the bus, I did not have a seat. I was forced to sit
in the aisle. - [Speaker 52] They held us
on the bus for hours and hours and
hours waiting to go to court. - [Speaker 53] I'm locked
inside of a box, inside of a box with shackles on my feet. - [Speaker 54] The courthouse
was on the other side of the street, so it took from
five o'c
lock in the morning to maybe eight o'clock just
to get 20 feet on a bus. (chains rattling)
(feet shuffling) - [Speaker 55] Taken into
a back door, into a tunnel and then you come out
what they call the docks. - [Speaker 56] No where
to sit, no benches, no mattresses, nothing. - [Speaker 57] And we would
set in that cell until our name is being called
to go and face the judge. - [Speaker 58] You
listen for the name when they call it in a lineup 'cause they're not gonna
call it again. So if you mi
ss your name,
you miss your court. - [Speaker 59] They bring it
out to the auction block 12 at a time. First in the back, when the
room, it look like this. Nothing but concrete floors and walls and ceilings. As soon as they open the door
and I come out, I see nothing but cherry wood,
like polished things. I see people families who
sitting in the front row. - [Speaker 60] My family just
didn't come. - [Bailiff] Order in court.
All rise. Section M one of the criminal
district court is now in sessi
on. The honorable Judge (beep) is now presiding.
(gavel tapping) Silence is commanded under
penalty of fine or imprisonment. God saved this honorable court. Please be seated.
(gavel tapping) Good morning your Honor. - [Narrator] Everyone who
is arrested and whose cases go to
criminal court starts out going through
magistrate court and has what's called
a first appearance. You will see to your left at
the door is a deputy sheriff, armed, and then you'll
see to your right the clerks working
for th
e court. Then there's two tables. The first one is the
District Attorney and then further back
is the public defenders. - [Clerk] When I come into
court, I usually get there before the judge
takes the bench. - [DA] Go to my table and I
gather my files and folders. - [Clerk 2] Maybe
reviewing the (indistinct). There are some people in
the audience now waiting for their case to be called. And then you know that
the people are coming. It's because it sounds
like a slave ship or like the sounds of
g
hosts in the attic 'cause you hear all of
this crazy jingling. - [Speaker 61] That's
when you see a person at their most broken state. You've already left
the anxiety of the jail and now you're facing
a courtroom. - [Clerk 1] Everybody comes in. Then the judge comes out. - [Judge] When I enter they,
you know, they do the all rise. - [Bailiff] Order in court,
all rise. - [Judge] And I sit down
and I usually say, "Good morning, everyone." - [Narrator] The magistrate
judge would just go through eac
h case and
do a first appearance and the judge generally would
ask the DA what the charge is and if they had any information on the person's prior record. - [Speaker 62] And then you
hear all these people talking about you, the lawyers,
they referencing your name. You keep hearing the
judge reference your name. And then you go over to a booth and you speak to one of the
lawyers. - [Public Defender] So I
introduce myself. I tell them I'm with the
public defender's office. Tell them that I'm a law
yer. - [Speaker 62] How did I even
end up here? All the events that
happened the day before, I never thought I would be here. - [Public Defender] Sometimes
when people are really upset, you know, I just try to spend
a minute calming them down. I don't have a lot of
time to talk to people. - [Speaker 63] The only thing
they know about me with the documents
that they had in it. - [Public Defender] I read
the police report to them. What's alleged in that
summons they have no idea. - [Speaker 65] Wh
en I
realized sort of what the incident might
have been about, I was like, "You gotta be kidding me?" - [Speaker 66] When they read
all this to me is when I realized the
police officer saw them throw the cracked pieces
on the ground, right? But he didn't write the
report that way. - [Narrator] You will see
the exact same police report Xeroxed the same thing in terms
of the person's possession of drugs and that's it,
there's probable cause. You're not allowed to
present a defense. You can't go ou
tside the four
corners of the police report. - [Public Defender]
They're to look at it as if every single thing that's
alleged in writing is true. - [Speaker 67] I don't
believe that you question each and every police officer. - [Judge] You set a bond
from there. Before you've set a bond,
you need to determine if the defendant has the
ability to pay a bond. - [Speaker 67] There's
no thinking about it. I knew I couldn't pay it And my people didn't
have that kind of money. - [Speaker 68] They say,
"This
is your bond." It had so many zeros on it, I don't
know what the (beep). - [Public Defender] I don't
think that there is any rhyme or reason to the amount
of bonds that are set. - [Speaker 69] I had probably
been in that back about four or five hours
and that process was probably 10 to 11 minutes and I was right back out. The crazy part is the
judge never looked at me. (dramatic music) - [Speaker 70] My mind
just stopped working. (glass breaking) You feel suffocated with
voidness of being
a human being. Have to resist by retreating within yourself until this
whirlwind subside enough for you to feel safe to try
to figure out what's going on. I dunno how I can describe it. Like a bright black, you know
is a space where darkness is at peace, but outside
where it's red. An island surrounded by a
sea of blood, bubbling red. It's just red, red. - [Speaker 71] Now I'm sick
to my stomach. I have a really,
really bad headache because now I can't
be strong anymore. I'm crying the whole ti
me
I'm waiting on the docks to go back to the jail
because reality has set in. I know that I'm going
upstairs now. - [Speaker 72] If you
got the money, you know, you probably you be out
in the next 24 hours. But if you ain't got the money you might be here the
next six months to a year. - [Speaker 73] Now I'm
got a bunch of what ifs. - [Speaker 74] How do I
live now being locked up? - [Speaker 73] As I'm
asking tons of questions to the ladies that are
on the docks with me and one lady in particu
lar,
she said, "Well, don't worry about it. If they don't accept the charge and then you'll be out
in 60 days." - [Speaker 75] I remember
the slamming of the door, (cell door slamming) chinking of the chains as
we walked down the halls. I remember the closing of
the door of the school bus getting back to the jail
and getting in the cell and hearing the air come
out (imitates air moving) and the slamming of the door.
(cell door closing) (sighing) That's it. That's a wrap. Everything faded to blac
Comments
Moving, factual spectacular work. Proud of you.
Pbs and all their affiliates are our national treasure
Just hearing it, I was able to paint the picture. Wow.
If you’ve been in public school, driven on government roads, ever dealt with the department of public safety or the veterans administration, you shouldn’t expect the legal system to be any better.
They make you feel like cattle inhuman 😢😮
scary
Yup. Thats what it is like. There was 8 to a 3 cot cell. I slept on the floor underneath the cot mounted to the wall. Toilet didn't work. No showers. No pillows. Everyday was monkey brains. Ground up bologna and celery on 1 slice of bread. Everyday. Maybe An apple every other day. 1 day randomly huge slice of chocolate cake I was lucky and only in jail 8 days.
Goodnight America. Get the lights on your way out, okay?