DocScapes will present a FREE screening of RICOCHET (Jeff Adachi and Chihiru Wimbush, 2021) on Sunday May 15, at 5pm at The Loft Cinema.
The screening will be followed by discussion with San Francisco Public Defenders Francisco Ugarte and Matt Gonzalez, and Pima County Justice For All campaign leaders Margo Cowan and Isabel Garcia.
The shooting of a woman by an undocumented immigrant ignites a political and media furor that candidate Trump exploits to fuel his political campaign. In the eye of the storm, two public defenders fight to reveal the truth.
RICOCHET tells the story of the trial of an undocumented immigrant, Jose Inés Garcia Zaraté, for the accidental shooting of a young woman in San Francisco in July of 2015. The incident gains national attention when Donald Trump exploits this on the campaign trail for the anti-immigration movement that he rides to the Republican nomination and eventually, the White House. At the same time, the national media takes the story and makes it a referendum on San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy. So the stakes are high when the trial finally begins in fall 2017, with the defense led by two San Francisco public defenders: Chief Attorney Matt Gonzalez and Francisco Ugarte, head of the office’s Immigration Defense Unit.
FILMMAKERS
CHIHIRO WIMBUSH (Director/Producer/Editor) is an Emmy-nominated, documentary filmmaker. Chihiro was co-director (with Amir Soltani) and cinematographer on the documentary feature, Dogtown Redemption, about homeless shopping cart recyclers in West Oakland, California. The film premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival where it won an Audience Award, and was broadcast on Independent Lens, before being nominated for an Emmy Award. He also edited the award-winning and nationally broadcast Changing Season about a year on the Masumoto family peach farm in the Central Valley. He has directed, produced and edited numerous short films, most recently Liminal, about prisoners released during the pandemic reconnecting with nature, that had its broadcast premiere on Valley PBS. Ricochet is his third collaboration with Jeff Adachi after serving as editor on Jeff’s previous two films The Ride and Defender.
JEFF ADACHI (Director/Producer) was a social justice advocate and filmmaker, writing and directing two PBS award winning films, “The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film & Television” and “You Don’t Know Jack Soo” and the acclaimed short film “Racial Facial,” a short film about the history of racism in the United States. Jeff’s previous film “Defender” was selected to premiere at a sold-out screening at the SF International Film Festival and won the Best Documentary film award at the Independent Television Festival in Vermont in 2017. Jeff served as the elected Public Defender of the City and County of San Francisco from 2002-2019 and worked as a deputy public defender and Chief Attorney in San Francisco for 15 years prior to his election. His office provided legal representation to over 20,000 people each year, mostly of color. Through his legal work and activism, Jeff was a strong advocate for the civil rights of all America.