Defender

This insightful documentary focuses on San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi as he and his team take on the high-profile case of 22-year-old Michael Smith, who pleads not guilty after he is charged with nine counts of resisting arrest. Pulled off a BART train along with his girlfriend, Smith is wrestled to the ground, the arrest captured on the attending officers' body cameras. Adachi employs the images from the cameras to advance the case that Smith's arrest and the rough treatment he received on the BART platform were racially motivated. Moreover, he avers in the documentary, his client's odyssey in the criminal justice system was evidence of black-crime bias in ostensibly liberal SF. But more than just an exposé of racism, Defender also shines a light on Adachi and his long career. Shown on the job - getting Smith to the courtroom, consulting with colleagues on the case, and discussing strategy and outcomes - and in private, early morning moments at the gym where he can't quite get away from work, running into an old client as he works out, Adachi is low-key and affable. But percolating beneath that placid surface is a lifelong passion for social justice, ignited when he was a small boy learning that his family was among those interned during World War II and finding its purpose in his long service with the public defender's office. (San Francisco International Film Festival)