Case study

Montreal documentary maker Ray Klonsky
follows a personal lead to an analysis of
the American justice system

QUESTIONING CONVICTIONS:
Klonsky (right) with co-director Marc Lamy

by JACK OATMON

What started as a magazine article about David McCallum, an apparently wrongfully convicted man in New York, has turned into an ambitious documentary project directed by Montrealer Ray Klonsky exploring the backward quirks and profiteering in the American legal system. Reasonable Doubt, which Klonsky made with co-director Marc Lamy, is produced in association with Avanti Ciné Vidéo. It’s currently in its final stages of production and has been aided along the way by Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and his organization. The story also contains an intriguing personal angle for the 23-year-old Toronto-born Klonsky, who went through Concordia’s communications program.

“My dad had written an article in a magazine called Sun about Rubin Carter,” explains Klonsky. “It was about the work he did with the wrongfully convicted. David, the guy in jail, read that article and he wrote to my dad. They established a letter correspondence. They had a detailed correspondence and my dad met David. I got into some trouble, and so my dad wrote to David and said, ‘I’m having some problems with my son. I don’t know why he’s acting like this.’ So David wrote to me and we started to have a relationship. He was able to talk me out of some of that adolescent anger. He encouraged me to look for positive outlets.”

The documentary aims to use McCallum as a case study of the problems facing the American justice system. “We did most of our shooting in the summer of 2008 and we have a rough cut now. We have three or four key interviews we’re going to get which expose key idiosyncrasies in the system,” Klonsky says. “Former high ranking executives for prison companies and stuff like that.”

Klonsky says Rubin Carter’s involvement in the process has been essential. “We’ve interviewed him, and his organization is the one that’s pushing to get David out of prison,” he says. “Actually, they’re filing the 440 motion, which is the motion to get the case back into court, next week, because they were just able to obtain testimony from one of the key witnesses from 24 years ago. We’re going to go down there to interview that witness. Rubin is involved with the process. I speak to him probably once a month. He’s been really supportive. He’s sent letters to try to get us interviews; he’s made a lot of calls on our behalf. It’s good to have someone like that supporting you.”