The Art and Lectures Series, produced by the College of Art and Humanities, debuted an award-winning documentary named,  Last Day of Freedom on Oct. 24. It was a story of racial injustice from the perspective of those affected by it. Nami Talisman, one of the directors, presented the film in the USU ballroom.

The documentary begins with Bill Babbit, narrating the agonizing journey of his brother Manny Babbit, a U.S Marine veteran who had returned from the Vietnam War. Manny, who received a Purple Heart for his honorable service, had a history of mental illness and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder upon his return to the US.

Without any remediation and treatment, Manny’s behavior began to fluctuate, eventually leading to his being convicted of 1980 murder of 78-year-old Leah Schendel and executed by the state of California. The film delves into Manny Babbit’s last day of freedom as he faces the biased perspective and discrimination within the mental health care system and criminal justice system.

Directors Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nami Talisman said they wanted to depict the harrowing experience in a way that would engage the audience as Manny Babbit faced the decision of whether or not to turn his brother in. The directors chose to incorporate animation to emphasize the emotions and the movements of the people depicted within the documentary.

“Initially we chose animation to retain the anonymity of several early storytellers, but as time went on and our film focused on Bill’s story, we realized the power animation has to open up new perspectives. We wanted to bring viewers intimately close to Bill, to witness each tear and wrinkle, to evoke metaphors of loss and isolation and document both the outer and interior lives of his remarkable and terrible story,” said Hibbert-Jones and Talisman in their director’s statement.

As a highly acclaimed documentary,  Last Day of Freedom has been awarded the Best Short Documentary for the International Documentary Association (IDA) and the Platinum Award winner for the Spotlight Documentary Film Awards. The film is available to stream on Netflix.