12 Year Old Lifer

12 Year Old Lifer is a documentary about two boys in the USA who are both serving 30 years in a juvenile facility. 

"In April 2010, in the small town of Enchanted Hills in Indiana, USA, 12-year-old Paul Gingerich helped his friend, 15-year-old Colt Lundy, shoot and kill Colt's stepfather.

The shocking murder of Phillip Danner was carried out by two middle-class boys with no prior criminal records. The story has gripped and baffled America."- Channel 4

Whilst I was flicking through the TV channels I noticed this documentary and immediately switched it on. It was the title that captured my attention because it explains the main concept of the program. This is something to take in consideration when creating documentary’s, the title is just as important, it needs to draw viewers in and give them a tiny brief outline as to what it is about to capture them.

“12 Year Old Lifer”

The program captures the lives of the two boys in juvenile prison. Some of the footage is archive footage because we see glimpses of when they were younger and been taken in to custody.

The documentary has access to the boy’s parents, police, children of the deceased man, and the ongoing court case.

From the beginning the documentary is trying to make us chose whether we feel for the children or feel they deserve their sentence. I was mixed from the beginning because I thought there would be a reason behind this attack, maybe the man was abusing or abusive to his stepson, but the program keeps this  hidden.

One thing I admired is the fact that everything was valid and a lot of peoples opinions were taken in to consideration. We heard everything from the boys, then heard everything from their parents, all the  information the police had, child psychologists, teachers, juvenile prison staff and so on, so we had plenty to juggle with and make up our mind of the whole scenario.

It was quite shocking to see these two boys because they looked so young and yet they were carrying out a 30year sentence. The older boy was getting ready to move up to the Adult section and part of the documentary was looking at what he has to face, such as beatings, rape, dominance and taunting. It is said that he is the youngest boy to ever go up to the adult section.                                                                                                            The use of camera to create an emotive was very slyly done, I felt that the interviewers were trying to make the audience feel for these children, the camera was always at a low angle when the boys were being interviewed and there were long takes so we could see the boys reactions when they spoke of the murder. They were interviewed in their isolated, small, grim cells showing their lonely existence now. 

Like I said before a lot of the program paid homage to the prison life and some of the staff were interviewed, most of them agreed that the children were too young and they were both well behaved and looked like they didn’t belong in a prison.

What I did look at was the sound used through out. There was no music as this was a serious matter. The only sounds used where the obvious ones on location, such as the cell doors being closed, inmates talking or the clinking of guards keys. A lot of the time there was silence when one or both of the boys would stop talking to re-couperate their thoughts, I though this was very effective because it gave us time to think for a minute and process what they boy just said. It was also used as an emotive to show how vulnerable and alone they are. 

 

In the end there was no motive. The boys had to carry out their sentence and some people said they would forgive but not forget whilst others will always be in shock.

One thing that annoyed me was that one of the boys boasted about being a lot fitter and wiser because of prison life. All through the program it made me feel like the boy was innocent (in the sense that his step dad had done something to cause this), but right at the end he says he doesn’t know why he did it and then boast about his health and physique and then program ends which left me gob smacked and quite ashamed I had these ‘feeling sorry’ feelings for him, but before I could change my mind the program finished.

 References

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/12-year-old-lifer/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1 [online] Last Accessed: 8th May 2013