Truth and Consequence

Carol Jennings

United States

Synopsis

It is an intolerable fact that some children are abused, yet false allegations lead to the tragic miscarriage of justice. One scientist asks the difficult question: Should we believe the kids?

REVIEW

Most American documentaries tend to present themselves as either objective sources of information or as dedicated instruments of subjective advocacy. Carol Jennings and her collaborators at Park Productions, an Ithaca College documentary studio, pursue a third way, dictated by the nature of the subject. Cornell University professor Stephen Ceci, a developmental psychologist, has focused much of his career on studying the suggestibility of children; that is, how children may be influenced by adults to understand and recall fictions as truths. Ceci's studies are often cited by defense lawyers to undermine the courtroom testimony of alleged victims of child abuse. How many child molesters have gone free and how many innocent people have been saved from severe punishment due to Ceci's work can never be known. The professor's own views on child abuse are clear-he's against it. Nevertheless, he has been personally vilified by prosecutors and by parents of victims for carrying on his clinical work. Artistic expression, by nature, cannot help but reveal judgment, and this film's measured pacing creates a mood of quiet reason that makes those who question Ceci's motives or his right to conduct research seem hysterical. The specter of the Salem witch trials is invoked in the opening moments. Gradually and gracefully, the scientist's dilemma becomes a metaphor for the artist's dilemma in attempting to make a documentary film.

-David Marc