82 Minutes 2004
Veteran Miami Police detectives become overwhelmed when an investigation into the rape of a young girl expands into a citywide manhunt for a serial rapist, terrorizing the Hispanic communities of Little Havana and Coral Way. Frustrated by cold leads, and armed only with a sketch that could resemble half the Hispanic men in Miami, detectives scour the streets and stop hundreds of men in a massive dragnet. After eluding authorities for months, the perpetrator attempts to strike again and the cops are waiting.
FEATURING: Fernando Bosch, Elio “Chills” Tamayo, Samantha Steinberg, John Timoney
“Code 33” started out as an attempt to pitch a show about master sketch artists Sam Steinberg. While shooting a pitch tape, we followed cops as they put up a sketch of a suspected rapist. A few days later he hit again and the police realized that the rapes were connected to several other cases. By the time it blew up into the biggest search in South Florida history, we were already embedded with the police. It was a long summer.
“Code 33 plays like a smart cross between CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the spate of crime-oriented reality television programs permeating the airwaves. But the compelling storyline, involving the notorious case of a serial rapist in Miami, and the filmmakers’ skill at examining the subject from various viewpoints, gives it an original quality.” – FRANK SCHECK, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
“A taut police procedural tracing the frantic search for a serial rapist who terrorized a Miami community in the summer of 2003, “Code 33″ is a bracing jolt of reality TV-style filmmaking for auds weary of the genre’s shallow excesses. This smart and shrewd docu, which has already garnered praise at a handful of fests, is first-rate fare for arthouse play, tube sales and ancillary.” – EDDIE COCKRELL, VARIETY
“There’s an obvious reason why the TV show “Cops” has been around for so many years: most people are fascinated by true-life police work. Improving upon the “Cops” concept by about a million degrees is the excellent new documentary “Code 33,” which gives the viewer full access to the Miami Police Department as they struggle to bring one serial rapist to justice.” – SCOTT WEINBERG, EFILMCRITIC.COM
About a year and a half ago – when we launched our first kickstarter campaign to help fund Battle for Brooklyn (a doc we have been working on for 7.5 years), I did a great deal of planning. I took the game theory aspect very seriously. We knew that we had networks of people that we could tap into, and......
Last night I spent a little time going over a grant application for film funding. Years ago, I gave up on applying for grants because we never got them- literally- in our first ten years of applying, we got none. The one positive thing about the process is that it does force one to do the work of articulating what......
When I hit the floor with searing back pain for the second time in my life I was stuck on my office floor for two weeks, unable to even sit up. On the 9th or 10th day of my stuckness I tried to go to the airport to get on a plane with my family. It took every bit of......
Last week a good friend, and academy nominated doc director, gave us some great notes on our rough cut. He had seen a somewhat earlier version of the film so it was great to hear his notes because we had already addressed about 80% of them. At the same time, he asked a series of sharp questions about what we......
Cathryn J Ramin’s heavily researched look at the back pain industry, “Crooked: Outwitting the Back Pain Industry and Getting On the Road to Recovery“, is painfully satisfying to read – especially for people who have struggled with back pain and the surgeons, pushers, and needle jockeys that profit from it. Ramin’s book is framed by her personal journey to heal......
On a Saturday afternoon in late September, I almost drowned. On this warm fall afternoon, my friend Caroline and I had impulsively decided to swim across a lake. It’s a big enough body of water that we had to frantically wave at several speedboats to make sure that we didn’t get run over as we crossed. It’s one of those......
DSLR video has had a tremendous impact on us over here at Rumur. The image quality is so much better than standard HD cameras that it has inspired a whole new wave of ideas. Before we made our first feature film, “Half-Cocked,” Suki said to me, “If we can make it look anything like your photos, we’ll be all right.”......
Feb 13- a snow storm locked Chapel Hill into place. The highway was stopped and the meadow froze over. Our borrowed dog struggled with the icy layer....
Last month I got the first copies of my photo book. It would not exist without kickstarter, and for that I am very grateful. It all began when I put some 20 year old mall pictures on-line. They went viral so I quickly threw together a kickstarter to make a book. I kept it simple, just using a music video......
We've been doing this work for over 25 years and have made all kinds of films from rock and roll narratives to crime films to political and personal documentaries. On the surface, most of the films don't seem connected, but certain themes run through them all, and they build on one another. These can be thought of as themes and also as lessons we learned from making the films. ...
When I was a freshman in high school, I became somewhat obsessed with photography. I was “that guy” who took most of the pictures for the school paper and the yearbook. I knew that I wanted to be a photographer, but I didn’t want to go to art school, or journalism school for that matter. I intuitively knew that it......
***this post is a bit unfinished- but I wanted to get it up before going out of town*** I have been writing in general about the stages that we all go through in life. The stages of my adult life have been clearly demarcated for me through my artwork. I can visually track the transitions through my photographs. I was......