“This film is tearful, heart wrenching and riveting. My God, I did not know that women are being executed that often in the United States. The circumstance of these women stems from poverty, drugs, abuse, rape, incest and neglect. Dead Women Walking is about the real Me Too movement.”

STATE OF THE ARTS NYC

Nine vignettes that tell the stories of women facing execution in the United States. As the film moves closer and closer to a real execution, we learn about these women but their caretakers — family, fellow inmates, prison guards and administrators. A real glimpse inside our incarceration system. The director should be commended for this fictionalized tale that sheds light on a subject rarely if ever discussed.

FILM OVERVIEW

Dead Women Walking traces the final days of a series of women on death row, from two weeks before one inmate’s execution to mere minutes before another’s. As these narratives develop, the human toll of the death penalty—not only on the women convicted of violent crimes, but also on their families, prison officials, and ministers and counselors coaching them through their final days—comes into clear focus. There’s Wendy, for example, whose mother declines to visit her the day before her execution; Helen, who meets her 18-year-old son (Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders) for the first time since he was adopted shortly after her imprisonment; and Celine, who watches a documentary about her case and conviction while having her last meal.

Looming over Dead Women Walking are two questions: Why did they do it? And, more implicit and rarely asked: How does society grapple with women’s violence? There’s little clemency to be found for viewer and subjects in director Hagar Ben-Asher’s unflinching, nuanced film, which sheds light on the death penalty by using these microscopic narratives to ask macroscopic questions.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Born in Israel, Hagar Ben-Asher received a film degree from the Minshar School of Art in 2007. Her film, Pathways, premiered at the Cinéfondation in Cannes in 2007. Her feature debut, The Slut, which she wrote, directed, and starred in, also premiered at Cannes, and, in 2016, she released her most recent feature film, The Burglar.

CAST & CREDITS

• Director:
  Hagar Ben Asher
• Producer:
  Clara Levy, Lorne Hiltser, Michael M. McGuire
• Screenwriter:
  Hagar Ben Asher
• Cinematographer:
  David Stragmeister
• Executive Producer:
  Patrick Holzman, Philippe Haim, David Gitlis
• Co-Producer:
  Marina Stabile
• US Distributor:
  blackpills
• Cast:
  Dale Dickey, Dot Marie Jones, Lynn Collins, Colleen Camp, Joy Nash, June Carryl, Maya Lynne Robinson, Maya Eschet, Jeryl Prescott

Photo images: June Carryl, Joy Nash, Bess Rous