Life of Crime 1984-2020

For 36 years, journalist and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jon Alpert followed three troubled people in Newark, New Jersey. Rob, Freddie, and Deliris are friends trying to survive on the fringes of a callous society. They make money initially with petty crimes and increasingly turn to drugs to keep reality at bay.

The veritable friendship between the maker and his charismatic subjects allows for unfiltered access, whether during thieving runs, in quiet places where they can shoot up, in the car with a john, or in the courtrooms, prisons, and rehab clinics they keep ending up in.

Throughout this unrestricted and deeply intimate portrait, the film bears witness to a failing system, where rehabilitation isn’t an option and only societal symptoms are addressed. The lead characters’ remarkable resilience makes for an astonishing filmic experience, despite the spectre of the inevitable culmination.

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Festival Scope Pro availability TBC