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Directed by Catherine Masud
Logline
A Double Life unveils the gripping true story of Stephen Bingham, a lawyer accused of passing a gun to prisoners’ rights leader George Jackson in 1971. Forced into a life on the run, Bingham spends 13 years underground, eluding capture while fiercely determined to clear his name.
Short Synopsis
A Double Life unveils the gripping true story of Stephen Bingham, a lawyer accused of passing a gun to prisoners’ rights leader George Jackson in 1971. Forced into a life on the run, Bingham spends 13 years underground, eluding capture while fiercely determined to clear his name. Through a mesmerizing blend of firsthand accounts, rare archival materials, and poignant interviews, the story traces Bingham’s astonishing odyssey. As he battles inner demons, seeks new meaning and love, and navigates a world of danger, the film sheds light on his unwavering quest for justice and redemption against all odds.
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Director Statement
This film is as much about Steve/Robert as it is about his times. The turbulent era of civil rights, student rebellion, and state surveillance forms the backdrop of a personal story of a man who managed to remain focused on his values and ideals through multiple disruptions and tragedies. The story is told through the multiple perspectives of his friends and colleagues in both the US and France, as well as family members both alive and dead. It is also a generational story, of the tensions that arise when worldviews collide between parents and their children, mirroring wider divides in the society at large. And it is a love story, of Steve and Françoise, who had to make a choice to risk everything. To tell this complex story spanning eras and continents, the narrative weaves back and forth between present and past, through a combination of verité treatments and archival, to unveil a drama of racial injustice, state surveillance, family jealousi es and political divides.
The film has a lyrical quality when Steve and others are reflecting about the times, the decisions, the challenges and the obstacles that have to be confronted after 13 years of a life on the run. Walking in the Vincennes forest in Paris, Steve learns to say his given name again. Paul Harris, part of Steve’s legal defense team, reflects on why people are willing to risk everything to return home as we drive through a dark tunnel, taking us into the heart of complex decision-making.
This is a story that needs to be told. It is powerfully relevant in the present era of social unrest and activism, when we as a nation are struggling to come to terms with the truth of our own dark past. In this contemporary climate, we have much to learn from the life stories of people like Stephen Bingham. It is not only a film of his times, it is a film for our times.
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