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Film Review: Documentary ‘Kids for Cash’ Shares Multiple Viewpoints
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CHICAGO – The funny thing about documentaries is that any goal of truly replicating reality, or the truth, is impossible. Unless a documentary film were to convey an experience with 360 degrees and 24/7 coverage (AKA life), it will always be a subjective endeavor. Documentary storytellers are always creating a point of view, simply by choosing where to point a camera, and where to cut a sequence.
![]() Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
While “Kids for Cash” does not achieve such a breakthrough in that respect, it is a rare documentary that nudges viewers closer to having an impression of a situation’s both sides. With an elaborate story, (one that is literally charted out by one of its subjects), it does show a big picture, with two distinct halves. Keeping to the complications within its center story, “Kids for Cash” does give its villain, one with surprising complications, a distinct amount of screen time.
“Kids for Cash” is a documentary about Mark Ciavarella, a Pennsylvania judge who ruled juvenile court cases with zero tolerance. He sentenced children to jail for minor mishaps, challenging their development into adulthood. When people begin questioning his ruthlessness, a larger scandal is unveiled that questions whether Ciavarella was paid by jails to send them kids.
“Kids for Cash” begins with painting a disturbing picture of different fates handed down to children by a ruthless zero tolerance system by a local judge, Mark Ciavarella. We meet various kids who have been under his wrath, and hear the stories of their harmless illegal crimes. One kid is locked up for making a MySpace page for her professor. When she recollects the event, she says, “I’m now one of those people in themovies!” (she is credited as “MySpace Page Incident”). A local journalist tells her involvement with the story, which involves collecting a large group of similar grievances from parents, to understand the big picture.
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Confrontation in the Documentary ‘Kids for Cash’
Photo credit: SenArts Film
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