The Innocents
Follow two acclaimed musicians who are determined to use their talents to advocate for social justice. Allen Otte and John Lane tour the country with their performance of The Innocents – a piece created to shine a spotlight on the growing problem of wrongful convictions in the United States. Using a variety of found-object and home-made instruments, electronic soundscapes, and spoken texts, the performer-composers endeavor to explore various aspects of the issues surrounding wrongful imprisonment and exoneration in the American criminal justice system: mistaken identity, incarceration, injustice, politics, psychology, and resilience. The film culminates with a performance attended by Anna Vasquez – an exoneree, who spent 13 years in a Texas prison system for a crime which never happened.
Polish-born filmmaker and professor currently residing and working in Texas. Wojciech has taught filmmaking at Columbia College Chicago, University of Hawaii West O’ahu, Columbus State University, and currently Sam Houston State University where he serves as the Chair of the Department of Mass Communication, and coordinates the BFA in Film and Television Production.
Wojciech is a film director whose works span a variety of genres and media types and include short and feature-length narratives and documentaries, as well as online media, and emerging media such as interactive and virtual reality projects.
The film aims to explore the role of art and creativity in pursuing social justice. Simultaneously, it shines a spotlight on a very real, and growing problem of wrongful convictions in the United States. Allen Otte and John Lane conceived their piece The Innocents as social justice advocacy through performance art. The work is an effort to delve deeply into the most current issues surrounding the core subject of wrongful imprisonment and exoneration, as well as a commitment to connect with the communities in which it is performed. Otten and Lane embrace their role as advocates through the realization that their work cuts to the emotional core of the human experience surrounding these issues. Their work echoes and ripples as it inspired this filmmaker to attempt to carry their message through the creative medium of non-fiction visual storytelling.