Camilla Hall’s latest documentary, Copwatch, tells the story of WeCopwatch, an organization whose mission is to film police activity in order to create accountability and deter violence against their communities. Armed with only cameras, knowledge of their rights, and a deep appreciation for their communities, Jacob Crawford, David Whitt, Ramsey Orta, and Kevin Moore are cop watchers from different cities tied together by an instinctual drive to bear witness and expose the truth.
Despite Orta’s video evidence of the NYPD murder of his friend, Eric Garner, and Moore’s footage of his friend, Freddie Gray, being tased by Baltimore officers on the sidewalk (Gray later suffered a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody), there were no police convictions in either case. In fact, Orta, whose name became well known after the high profile case, is the only person involved in these incidents who is serving prison time. Told through footage from Hall’s film crew, as well as intimate moments from the copwatcher’s own footage, the film shows us how Wecopwatch supports not just their immediate communities’ pursuit of justice and accountability, but each other.
We are proud to partner with WeCopwatch. Over the past 2 years, we’ve worked together to adapt sections of our Video as Evidence Field Guide into a more localized training handbook, and co-organize several trainings on the ground in St.Louis. You can read more about our work with WeCopwatch in St.Louis here. We also worked together this past winter to create a new guide for Standing Rock activists. WeCopwatch shared it at the Oceti Sakowin camp where they spent several months conducting trainings and building strong bonds and alliances with indigenous leaders, water protectors and The National Lawyers Guild’s Water Protector Legal Collective.
To learn more about the Copwatch film, we corresponded with Hall. Q&A below.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETOeSYPlX7s
