ABOUT THE PROJECT

SYNOPSIS
Miracle Village is a community in central Florida that 145 registered sex offenders call home. Surrounded by sugar cane fields, it is a rare refuge: stringent residency restrictions make it virtually impossible for them to live anywhere else.

These are low-level offenders, men whose lives have been up-ended for having consensual sex with a minor, or lewd chats with undercover agents on the Internet, but they are forever branded with a label virtually guaranteed to render them marginalized, unemployable and often homeless. The argument is not if theirs was acceptable behavior, but rather whether we have adopted laws that are neither effective nor just.

MIRACLE VILLAGE provides a unique microcosm for a consideration of this polarizing issue. The film spends over a year following the Village’s directors, Pat Powers and Chad Stoffel, as they prepare for new arrivals fresh from prison, handle feuds between roommates, check on curfews, negotiate with probation officers, attend court hearings and therapy sessions and struggle to find work and a semblance of normalcy. The film uses its characters to frame the debate from a unique and personal point of view, suggesting that we rethink how we treat these most reviled members of our society.

Read and watch an Op-Ed (and the accompanying “Op-Doc” video) in the New York Times.

PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature

DIRECTOR Lisa F. Jackson