Watching Deadline with the Big Mouth Family

My name is Wendy and I am the Outreach Coordinator at MediaRights, Big Mouth Productions' sister company. I am writing from our offices this morning, watching the dust settle from yesterdays whirl-wind of TV appearances and the braodcast of Deadline. We are all here- Katy, Dallas, Kirsten, Beth, Katherine, David, Finn etc. answering emails, updating the site, talking about last night. Yesterday evening, the Big Mouth Productions and MediaRights families came together to watch the broadcast premiere in a beautiful Manhattan home. At about five minutes to eight, with food and drink in our hands, we all made our way the television--we were definitely excited and I think a little anxious. Even though I had seen the film before, in various editions and on various screens, I could not have anticipated how surreal it was to see the film on network, prime time television.

At first, I was (and perhaps all of us were) in disbelief watching the film with an NBC peacock logo resting on the bottom of the TV and Stone Phillips speaking of the extraordinary women I see at work everyday. And I have to admit, it was very unsettling to watch the film in increments, punctuated by advertisiements. Here is footage of a mom pleading for her sons life as she awaits Governor Ryan's decision and boom-time for a commercial break . As voice-overs leave teazers for the upcoming segments such as "Next, a quiet cry for justice" we couldn't help but laugh at how bizarre this all seemed.

Before leaving, Katy, Kirsten, Dallas and Angela called Governor Ryan and placed him on speaker phone so we could all thank him for his participation in the film after the MSNBC panel. For me, Ryan's words to the entire Big Mouth family best describe the event: we can't even begin to imagine the significance of the film and magnitude of having it reach such a large audience.

If there is one viewer last night that went from knowing nothing of the stagering statistics of death penalty sentences and and the cases of false conviction then the documentary made a difference, perhaps changed a vote and at the very best case inspired that viewer to do something, to take action. For me, it is this potential of reaching millions of people and beginning a dialogue on the criminal justice system that is most energizing and inspiring.

Posted by Wendy at 03:01 PM