You are cordially invited to the reception for the film installation “Half Truths and Full Lies.”
“Half Truths and Full Lies” is a multi-channel documentary film installation that depicts the case of Efren Paredes, Jr., who was arrested at age 15 and sentenced to life without parole in 1989 for a murder he asserts he did not commit. He has spent two-thirds of his entire life behind bars and will soon be 46-years-old.
The reception is Friday, March 15, 2019, from 5 – 8 p.m.
Location:
Casa de Rosado
204 W. Mt. Hope
Lansing, Michigan
Filmmaker Tirtza Even and members of Efren’s family will be in attendance at the reception. Efren will also be calling in to the event from prison throughout the evening. He will be available to answer questions and participate in media interviews.
The reception is being held on the 30th anniversary of Efren’s original arrest date. A selection of his essays, poetry; and an in-depth, revealing, exclusive new interview with him about his personal life and decades of experiences during his incarceration will also be available at the gallery.
You are encouraged to use our Facebook event page to invite friends in your network to view the film installation, to share the event on your social media platforms, and ask others to do the same. The Facebook event page can be accessed at: http://www.bit.ly/HTFL315. You can visit the event page for any updates between now and the opening reception.
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“Half Truths and Full Lies” is a collaboration film project between nonfiction filmmakers Tirtza Even, Meg McLagan, and multimedia producer Elyse Blennerhassett.
The exhibit will be on display from March 15 – April 12, 2019. It is free and open to the public.
The film depicts, through documentation and reenactment, the case of Efren Paredes, Jr., a Latinx man from Michigan, who was arrested at age 15 and sentenced to life without parole for a homicide he asserts he did not commit.
The multi-channel installation takes on a Rashomon-like quality, as divergent accounts of the crime accrue, forming multiple portraits of Efren. These accounts reflect perspectives of a range of individuals, from a police detective to key witnesses from the tight-knit small town community who singled Efren out, as well as of those whose lives — over the past 30 years — were most affected by the teen’s conviction: family members, teachers, and citizens who sat in judgment as jury members.
“Half Truths and Full Lies” tells a story about a story; one constructed by a group of teens who appear to have conspired to set up their peer, and whose narrative played on stereotypical assumptions about racial minorities. This account became the only one the public and the jury got to hear, and the one upon which the local police and prosecutor relied.
The installation, however, is also a story about a handful of alternative, untold stories, and at their center — Efren’s story of innocence. The project attempts to recuperate conflicting narrative possibilities, and to investigate the nature of truth-telling in both media and the law.
The goal of the film is to create a new form of storytelling that unfolds nonlinearly and in space: to surround the viewers with incompatible slivers of the narrative, and have them piece the story together themselves. Even when added up, however, the various angles of the story form a broken and inconsistent whole. The goal is to generate reasonable doubt about the narrative version used by the prosecutor, and to thus undermine its certainty.
Cinematography and editing assistance: Yoni Goldstein
Additional camera: Steve Maing and Gonzalo Escobar
Sound mixing: Julian Flavin
Efren in His Own Words 