#HOTDOCS: “APART”

By Justin Waldman

Apart is going to make you angry, and it absolutely should. There is another war on drugs, and instead of getting help and providing sentencing that is not rehab or something helpful to first offenders to get the help they need, they serve sentences, long sentences that can destroy their lives. The Documentary focuses on three women: Tomika, Lydia, and Amanda, and their reasonings for being in prison, whether it be they got addicted to prescribed medication, and then got cut-off, being forced to buy elsewhere and getting caught. Or being caught in possession with intent to distribute when they simply a passenger in car. These women are not felons, they got caught in a war that is raging across the United States.

What makes Apart so powerful is listening to these women’s stories about what they did, how they got there, and exposing how broken the system is. Rehabilitation is not cheap, there is no denying that, but why can’t there be court mandated rehabilitation instead of prison time for first offenders? This Documentary focuses on their time spent in and out of prison and what their lives have become because of their sentence.