How to Love Your Enemy: A Restorative Justice Story, a film by Free the People, has won the 2020 Lights, Camera, Liberty Film Festival Award—and the $10,000 grand prize!
Being swept up in the criminal justice system often traps people in cycles of recidivism in the United States—where the recidivism rate nationally is over 60 percent and where unnecessary barriers to successful reentry are put in the paths of returning citizens.
With over 130,000 views on YouTube, Free the People’s How to Love Your Enemy highlights a new approach to policing—restorative justice—that brings together victims, offenders, police officers, and members of the community to work through a solution. The video offers real-life examples of restorative justice in Longmont, Colorado, and highlights how it is often a better and more satisfying alternative for both the victim and offender (and even for the officer and community members).
Lights, Camera, Liberty is an annual film workshop that helps Atlas Network partners transform the way they market their messages through online video. Each participant organization that completes the annual workshop is eligible for the award, which is presented at Atlas Network’s Liberty Forum.
Other finalists for the film festival this year were the Pacific Legal Foundation in the United States, Fundación Libertad Progreso in Argentina, Center for Anti-Authoritarian Studies in Serbia, and Bikalpa, an Alternative in Nepal.