We've launched an exciting new project of our own! Introducing the Kickstarter app for iPhone!

Funded! This project successfully raised its funding goal on April 29, 2011.

Photo-main

A documentary about the over 2500 children serving life without parole in The United States of America.

TO SEE THE FILM'S FULL 10 MINUTE EXTENDED TRAILER GO TO: www.achildslifewithoutparole.com

WE NO LONGER HAVE POST-PRODUCTION SUPPORT taken care of and WE NEED YOUR HELP

 When I first put this project on Kickstarter all of my post production costs were going to be covered. The company that was supposed to handle it backed out. They simply didn't have the time for a project that in their estimation wasn't going to generate them much money, and would be far more grueling to complete than they had anticipated.

I'm reaching out to see if anyone knows of a preferably Los Angeles based post-production facility who may be interested in coming on board the film in exchange for an Executive Producer credit. Larger monetary donations can also buy us what we would need from a post facility. Please pardon my possibly seeming pushy in regards to money, just dying to finish this film and let the world know these stories exist. Thank you in advance for any possible leads or donations!!!

You can email me at: joshuarofe@yahoo.com

Please feel free to pass along the link to the trailer: www.achildslifewithoutparole.com

As always, thank you!!

-Josh

---

Synopsis:

"WHEN I DIE, PLEASE SEND ME HOME" - A Child’s Life Without Parole

A Film By Joshua Rofé

America is the only country on earth that allows juvenile offenders to be sentenced to Life Without Parole. We have more than 2,500 child lifers - 109 for non-homicide crimes - in 38 states. Some children are simply broken, sociopaths who need to be kept away from society forever. And there are the miscarriages of justice, the kid forced to participate in the horror shows that get people killed, or the kid simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are white and black, girls and boys, rich and poor, from the North as well as the South. They are in New Hampshire and Colorado, Florida and Texas. They are very often in California. This documentary is NOT a piece of hand-wringing advocacy. NOT the "Innocence Project". We are not on a mission to spring the innocent. Both the film and the episodic insist on remaining in the realm of discomfort. We are proposing an uncompromising look at what it is to lock up a kid for life, both the "deserving" and the "undeserving", what that means for the kids, for the adults (and the elderly) who have lived behind bars since childhood. And what it says about us as a nation and a culture that we still wield this form of punishment on the unformed. We will also examine the life of the child behind bars, and be present at that moment when the reality of his existence comes crashing down around him: the realization that this is it. The hopes and dreams are gone. Replaced by confinement. Never to marry, never to date. Never to bear children or raise them. (Remarkable and terrifying fact: many juvenile lifers, upon entering prison, are forced to spend their first years - sometimes as many as a decade - in solitary confinement. Not out of punishment but to ready them to survive the prison’s general population. Only when they are hardened are they sent out into the yards.) Also, what gets a child so broken that he is able to put a gun to the back of a man’s head and pull the trigger? What of his biology, what of his upbringing? Not to say the killers among them are unjailable or unpunishable, but when a kid under 17 goes away forever, we are, for better or worse, extinguishing a flame. And it is a slow execution. So we are interested in locating, if it is findable, the moment of conception of the mistake, or the pathology. We will follow the lives of some of these kids inside ... and the families -- of the victims and the perpetrators both -- on the outside. Are there alternatives for kids like these? Or do we simply throw them in the box and dispose of them?

FAQ

Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.

Ask a question
139
Backers
$20,712
pledged of $15,000 goal
0
seconds to go

Funding period
Feb 23, 2011 - Apr 29, 2011 (65 days)

  • Pledge $25 or more

    15 backers

    A personal thank you letter from Director/Producer Joshua Rofé.

  • Pledge $50 or more

    58 backers

    A personal thank you letter from Director/Producer Joshua Rofé & a DVD of the finished film.

  • Pledge $100 or more

    16 backers

    Signed poster & a personal thank you letter from Director/Producer Joshua Rofé & a DVD of the finished film.

  • Pledge $250 or more

    2 backers

    An 8x10 still from the film. A personal thank you letter from Director/Producer Joshua Rofé & a DVD of the finished film.

  • Pledge $500 or more

    1 backer

    An 11x14 still from the film. A personal thank you letter from Director/Producer Joshua Rofé & a DVD of the finished film.

  • Pledge $1,000 or more

    3 backers

    A Very Special Thanks in the credits. A Thank You Lunch with Director/Producer Joshua Rofé (travel not included) & a DVD of the finished film.

  • Pledge $3,000 or more

    0 backers

    Co-Associate Producer credit. A personal thank you letter from Director/Producer Joshua Rofé & a DVD of the finished film.

  • Pledge $5,000 or more

    0 backers

    Associate Producer credit. A Thank You Dinner with Director/Producer Joshua Rofé (travel not included). A DVD of the finished film.

  • Pledge $10,000 or more

    0 backers

    Executive Producer credit. A personal thank you letter from Director/Producer Joshua Rofé & a DVD of the finished film, and I'll name my first born after you.

Featured!