“They Call Us Monsters” Documentary

“They Call Us Monsters,” a documentary that premiered Monday night at the Los Angeles Film Festival, follows three teens—Jarad, Juan, and Antonio—tried as adults and locked up in the high-security Compound within Sylmar Juvenile Hall. The three face up to 200 years combined for violent crimes they committed between the ages of 14 and 16.

The three boys in the film are all taking a screenwriting class taught by the film’s producer, an award-winning filmmaker and musician, Gabriel Cowan.

Director Ben Lear, who gained unprecedented access to film life within the Compound, called the documentary “a coming of age story set behind bars.”

The film also follows the passage and effects of California’s SB 260, an important juvenile justice reform law that gave a second chance at parole to kids who were convicted of murder before the age of 18 and sentenced to life-without-parole. SB 260, and several other laws passed since 2012, have put California at the forefront of the juvenile justice reform movement away from the the “superpredator” fear-mongering that emerged in the 90′s. Still, in California, kids as young as 14 can be tried and sentenced as adults.

The issue is especially relevant in Los Angeles. A 2015 report found that in the last decade, LA County was responsible for sentencing the most kids to juvenile life-without-parole, nationwide.

“They Call Us Monsters” delves into the issue of whether kids who have committed brutal crimes deserve a second chance, or whether they should continue to be defined by their worst act.

In addition to Lear and Cowan, the all-star team behind the documentary includes Executive Producer, Scott Budnick, best known for producing the Hangover movie franchise and founder of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, along with Editor Eli Despres, who co-wrote and edited the powerful documentary “Blackfish,” and Producers Sasha Alpert, Jonathan Murray, and Gil Goldschein of BMP Films.

(In the above video interview there are clips of the documentary at the 7:55 mark and the 22:10 mark.)

In an interview with the LA Times’ Josh Rottenberg, the documentary’s director, Ben Lear, explains how the movie came about, and how the documentary faces viewers with the unfathomable task of “reconciling what they did with their humanity.” Here’s an excerpt:

As these three kids were going through this screenwriting class, what were you anticipating would come out of it?

I always knew that creative process was going to lead to interesting insights into their personalities and them as teenagers. But neither Gabe nor I had any idea they were going to want so passionately and immediately to tell their own story.

The way Gabe set up the class, he said, “You can write a movie about whatever. You can write an animated movie about, like, some sci-fi thing.” And from the beginning, they were like, “No, I want to tell my story.”

It quickly became clear that they all had experienced this loss of innocence around the age of 12 or 13. So their film became about them putting their stories into one 12-year-old boy and his loss of innocence.

On the one hand, these are young guys from tough backgrounds whose impulse control and sense of consequences haven’t fully developed yet. On the other, they’ve committed serious crimes, including attempted murder and first-degree murder. What are you hoping audiences will take away from their stories?

First of all, I want people to just be aware that we try juveniles as adults. In California, a juvenile can go to prison for the rest of his life. Until the bill that we followed in the film passed, SB 260, he could never have an opportunity to get out again. The film is trying to show these kids as people and present the idea of offering them a second chance.

But while I talk with so much affection for these guys and want so much for them to succeed, I never want to get too far away from the reality of the crimes they committed. That’s the whole other side of this issue. That’s why we’re talking about them in the first place. They made horrible, heinous mistakes with real victims.

Yeah, I believe they should have an opportunity to live their lives again one day. But I think, in coming to that conclusion, you have to face the impossible task of reconciling what they did with their humanity. That’s the challenge that provoked me into telling this story and that I want to pass on to everyone who sees the film. These are kids who committed crimes … but they’re kids … but they committed horrible crimes. Wrestle with that.