Time (2020)

By: Mike Ward on Saturday, December 05

PG-13 Running Time: 81 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

A powerful, thought-provoking look at the American criminal justice system.
Intimate and unafraid - Time is built around 20 years of home videos and movies, as well as documenting a wife and mother’s efforts to free her husband from prison, while raising six sons on her own.
Asks some difficult questions about whether we sentence to punish or sentence to rehabilitate and forgive. Time presents these arguments in new and captivating ways.

NO

There will be those who hear Fox Rich admit that she and her husband committed the crime they were arrested for and close off their minds to everything else. Maybe one should ask themselves if they are ready to have the conversation Time is ready to have with its viewers.
You believe a documentary about a woman trying to free her husband from prison seems focused on the wrong side of that situation.
Perhaps you don’t believe in statistics that show racial disparity is increasing when it comes to the incarceration rates and sentences handed down to Black people and Persons of Color.

OUR REVIEW

Patched together through an amazing, deeply affecting collection of home videos encompassing more than 18 years, Garrett Bradley’s unforgettable documentary Time places very real stakes and realities before us, and offers a heart-wrenching portrayal of how the criminal justice system tears apart families.

Before moving ahead too much further, this film documents a family coming to grips with the reality of their actions. The argument that Rob Rich II, the husband and father omnipresent through much of the film, placed himself in the criminal justice system for committing armed robbery is not debated. Rather, it is openly acknowledged by his wife, Sibil (also known as Fox Rich).

Fox admits that she also had a role in committing the crime and served three years for her participation. Rob was given a 60-year sentence, with no possibility for parole, when he refused to take a plea bargain like she did. When opportunities to come before judicial review and receive consideration for early release are repeatedly denied or struck down, Fox becomes a tireless advocate for criminal justice reform and a voice for families in crisis. Her fight is against a system, she argues, is designed to separate families and is disproportionately impacting families of color in this country.

Bradley captures, through Fox’s videos and messages, the real-life impacts of what an incongruent court system means to families. At first look, Fox is young, pregnant with twins, and perhaps unaware of just what lies in front of her. Along the way, we learn that Rob’s release will cost a lot – in time, in emotion, in responsibilities, but also in money and resources. Fox discusses the different lawyers who agreed to take Rob’s case, the thousands of dollars she saved working multiple jobs as a single mother to pay for various attorneys who burn through funds and issue one or two letters and say there’s simply nothing more they can do.

Fox’s anger and disappointment and love for her family fuels her fight. Increasingly, she becomes wise to the realities of not just her life but of others in similar situations. She is on a first-name basis with the court clerks she touches base with to see when the latest judge is expected to issue a ruling on Rob’s potential release.

Her six sons grow through the years, right before our eyes, and match Fox’s voice as it becomes more powerful and aware of the realities of the world. Her sons are all too aware of the realities black men face when it comes to policing, the courts, and for-profit prison systems. Whether addressing her congregation, working with non-profits, or appearing in commercials, she has become the voice for more than just her family and her husband, but for so many families who have loved ones facing discordant sentences, almost arbitrarily imposed.

Rob was held in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a state which was routinely held the record for the highest incarceration rate, per 100,000 residents, in the nation. In 2013, approximately 850 residents/100k were incarcerated and while that number has dropped through prison reform in the state, it remains on top of the most dubious of lists in 2019, where 683 individuals/100k residents are behind bars.

Fox argues this is a form of modern-day slavery; an institution designed to tear families apart and segregate, rather than institute practices which lead to forgiving and bring families together.

Bradley’s film initially was intended to be a short film about Fox and her efforts. Near the end of completion, Fox had grown to trust Bradley and her work and turned over nearly 20 years of footage she had shot documenting her efforts. For Bradley, the film took on a completely new life.

Color-saturated in black-and-white, the film retains an artistic look and feel which makes this feel like something of a historical record. Time looks unique and bold, inventive and striking. Bradley incorporates the haunting and moving piano compositions of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrout, an Ethiopian nun, which underscores the bittersweet inspiration surrounding the Rich story. Bradley’s stitching together of these videos, and interviews with Fox’s mother and voiceovers from her children, all present Fox’s thesis as impossible to dismiss.

Fox shares in a speech: “(I) can only visit my family when they say I can visit my family. I get to visit my husband two times a month. The state is only committed to giving us two visits a month. And they are only required by law to allow us to visit for two hours. You raise a family for 20 years behind bars. You keep a family together for two decades in this institution. You hold on to your loved ones and your sanity in the midst of this cruel and unusual punishment. Then you can talk to me…then you can tell me…if I do the crime I should do the time.”

The reality of the Rich family’s circumstances is summed up powerfully in that moment. Time is a movie that will polarize some, anger and motivate others. Easy for some to dismiss (he’s guilty, he should have never committed the crime in the first place), doing so feels short-sighted and foul.

The story of Fox Rich and her family is part of the ongoing story of America. And if this is a story that seems so impossible to hear and understand, than perhaps that makes Bradley and Fox’s points even more profound and necessary.

CAST & CREW

Documentary Featuring: Fox Rich, Rob Rich II, Freedom Rich, Justus Rich, Laurence Rich, Mahlik Rich, Remington Rich, Rob Rich.

Director: Garrett Bradley
Release Date: October 16, 2020
Amazon Studios

A powerful, thought-provoking look at the American criminal justice system.

Intimate and unafraid - Time is built around 20 years of home videos and movies, as well as documenting a wife and mother’s efforts to free her husband from prison, while raising six sons on her own.

Asks some difficult questions about whether we sentence to punish or sentence to rehabilitate and forgive. Time presents these arguments in new and captivating ways.

There will be those who hear Fox Rich admit that she and her husband committed the crime they were arrested for and close off their minds to everything else. Maybe one should ask themselves if they are ready to have the conversation Time is ready to have with its viewers.

You believe a documentary about a woman trying to free her husband from prison seems focused on the wrong side of that situation.

Perhaps you don’t believe in statistics that show racial disparity is increasing when it comes to the incarceration rates and sentences handed down to Black people and Persons of Color.