An amateur comedian is thrown in jail for a joke, and his ensuing legal battle highlights deadly flaws in America’s judicial system.
In 2016, an amateur comedian named Anthony Novak made a parody Facebook page making fun of his local police department in Parma, OH (a suburb of Cleveland). The page was satire, but the police took it very seriously.
They charged Anthony with felony, threw him in jail for 4 days, and put him on trial for 18 months in prison—all for a joke. His ensuing legal battle (which went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court) would ultimately shed light on the importance of free speech and police accountability—two fundamental pillars essential for upholding democracy in America.
THE FILMMAKERS
Will Thwaites, director/producer – Will Thwaites is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. He’s worked on projects for Netflix, Amazon, National Geographic, and PBS. Will was a producer on two acclaimed Netflix series: Full Swing and My Next Guest with David Letterman. He started his career at Kartemquin Films, where he worked on the Emmy Award-winning film, The Homestretch.
Diane Quon, consulting producer – Academy Award-nominated Diane Quon worked as a marketing executive at NBC and Paramount Pictures in LA before moving back to her hometown of Chicago. Since 2016, Diane has produced multiple documentaries including: Oscar and Emmy nominated, and Peabody award-winning film, Minding the Gap (Hulu); aka Mr. Chow (HBO); Breaking the News (Independent); Oscar-shortlisted Bad Axe (IFCFilms); Emmy-nominated Wuhan Wuhan; The Dilemma of Desire (Showtime); Emmy-nominated Finding Yingying (MTVDocs); For the Left Hand (PBS), and Surf Nation (PBS). Diane is an AMPAS member, and is a Sundance Creative Producing Fellow and Cinereach Producer Awardee.
Liz Hodes, consulting producer – Liz Hodes is an Emmy-Award-winning producer who has worked on some of the most celebrated documentary television series of the past decade: The New York Times Presents (FX), The Vow (HBO), The Circus (Showtime), and Conversations with a Killer (Netflix). Liz produced the Emmy-nominated film Framing Britney Spears and the Emmy-winning film Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson.
Follow director Will Thwaites: https://www.instagram.com/willthwaites