w/ Paul Fitzgerald and Kelly Miller
10:15 pm, Regal 3
Director: Paul Fitzgerald
Writer: Paul Fitzgerald
Cinematographer: Vanja Cernjul
Cast: Paul Fitzgerald, Susan Floyd, Kate Grant, Russell Hornsby
Running Time: 81 min

In his debut film Forgiven, director, writer and actor Paul Fitzgerald — emerging from an acting career primarily in television crime dramas (CSI: Miami, Law & Order) — has crafted a multilayered study of tragedy and dramatic tension. Unlike many cinematic narratives, this film exists deeply in the real world. There are no clear “heroes” and “villains”; the characters are flawed humans wrestling with moral dilemmas and the consequences of racial and class divides.

It’s the eve of a campaign launch for US Senate hopeful Peter Miles, a small town District Attorney (played by Fitzgerald). Miles receives word that the governor has exonerated Ronald Bradler, a death row inmate whom he prosecuted five years earlier for the murder of a local police officer. In the wake of Bradler’s release and through the lens of the media frenzy surrounding the high profile case, what unfolds is both a private and public vetting of his record as a prosecutor. When hard evidence of actual impropriety on Miles’ part finds it way into the hands of Bradler, the two men are placed on a course to confrontation that will lead either toward or away from reconciliation.

Forgiven is set in the cross hairs of a contemporary American society where the idiom of religious beliefs has penetrated the dialogue of politics, where private lives are public, and where factors such as race, class and economic standing effect the ways in which punishment is meted out by our legal system. Set against the stark backdrop of the ever-increasing chasm of misunderstanding and vitriol between persons separated by social and economic differences, this is a story about the essential need for accountability from those in positions of power. Forgiven is a compelling and energetic political drama, focused on accountability, moral absolution and the consequences of political arrogance and racial inequality.