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THE C NUMBER

USA, 2007, 32 min., English

Director: Christopher Booker
Producer: Christopher Booker, Chris Brown
Script: Christopher Booker
Cinematography: Chris Brown
Editing: Christopher Booker
Music: Ian Clyde
Sound: Chris Brown
Production company: Chicago Tribune
Print Source:
Christopher Booker
Chicago Tribune
435 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
USA
Tel.: 312 222 3115
e-mail: cbooker@tribune.com
www.cgbooker.com


The C Number

Theodore Bacino has applied for parole 24 times. Each year since 1982, the 71-year old, two time-convicted felon appears before one member of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. And each year his request is denied. To the state of Illinois, Bacino’s yearly parole application is a relic of a philosophy long since passed. He, like more than three hundred other inmates, is a C number, an inmate sentenced before drastic changes were made to sentencing laws. As far as some people are concerned, he is trapped in the system, an example of the arbitrary nature of punishment. As far as the victim’s family is concerned, Bacino is where he belongs. This film follows Theodore Bacino as he applies for parole for the 25th time. His application, a process caught in a bureaucratic no man land, is measured by an increasingly conservative parole board and resisted by the victim’s family. But Bacino is hopeful. His institutional record is spotless and his wife of 45 years is waiting for his release. All he can do is wait for his chance to speak, then pray as the 15-member parole board decides whether a convicted cop killer has earned the right to walk free, or whether that right was lost the moment he pulled the trigger.

Christopher Booker received his A. A. S. in Graphic Design (1998) and B.F.A. in Industrial Design from Rochester Institute of Technology; M.A. in Media Journalism from Indiana University. He is an award winning multimedia producer for the Chicago Tribune. He writes and produces video documentaries for the newspaper’s online and television products. Credits include Stricken Genius: The Life and Rebirth of a Musical Mastermind, A Culture in Crisis: New Orleans, China’s Great Grab, He occasionally writes for the Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine and the Perspective section.

Filmography:

The C Number (2007)

SATURDAY, APRIL 7 AT 4:30 PM./CHOPIN THEATRE

SCREENING WITH GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB

SUNDAY, APRIL 8 AT 7:00 PM./PORTAGE TRHEATRE

SCREENING WITH GHOSTS OF ABU GHRAIB