Courtroom 3H, a feature documentary directed by alumnus Antonio Méndez Esparza ‘08, will be part of the official selection at AFI Docs 2021. The film will screen virtually between June 25 and 27, 2021 and will also have an in person screening at the festival on June 26, accompanied by a conversation with Méndez Esparza, producer Ana Castañosa and subject Judge Sjostrom. The festival appearance will mark Courtroom 3H’s North America premiere after its 2020 world premiere at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Courtroom 3H follows the Tallahassee Unified Family Court (Florida) which specializes in judicial cases involving minors. It is the only court in the United States that deals with matters relating to children and parents. The families are summoned to this court when accused of abuse, abandon or negligence in regard to the minors. The objective of this court according to the Law is to reunite families as quickly and safely as possible. The movie takes its inspiration from the words of James Baldwin: “If one really wants to know how justice is administered in a country, one goes to the unprotected and listens to their testimony.”
The film is set in the same Tallahassee community as Méndez Esparza’s previous feature film Life and Nothing More (La vida y nada más) which won the FIPRESCI prize at the 2017 San Sebastian Film Festival and the 2018 John Cassavetes Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Antonio Méndez Esparza was born in Madrid and is currently a film professor at the University of Tallahassee, Florida. He directed the short films Yamira (2006) and Una y otra vez (2009), winner among others of the Versión Española-SGAE award given by RTVE to the Best Spanish Short Film, the DGA Student Award for Best Latino Filmmaker – East Coast and the Best Short Film Award at Los Angeles Film Festival. His first feature film, Aquí y allá (Here and There, 2012), premiered at Cannes where it received the Semaine de la Critique Grand Prix and was also shown in Horizontes Latinos at San Sebastian.
