Search a film or person :
FacebookConnectionRegistration
Home > All films > Films Documentary > Fourteen Days in May
Fourteen Days in May is a British film of genre Documentary

Fourteen Days in May (1988)

Fourteen Days in May
If you like this film, let us know!
  • Infos
  • Casting
  • Technical infos
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Film quotes
  • Characters
  • Music
  • Awards
Length 1h28
Rating78% 3.9366853.9366853.9366853.9366853.936685

Fourteen Days in May is a documentary directed by Paul Hamann and originally shown on television by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1987. The programme recounts the final days before the execution of Edward Earl Johnson, an American prisoner convicted of rape and murder and imprisoned in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. Johnson protested his innocence and claimed that his confession had been made under duress. He was executed in Mississippi's gas chamber on 20 May 1987.

The documentary crew, given access to the prison warden, guards and chaplain and to Johnson and his family, filmed the last days of Johnson's life in detail. The documentary argues against the death penalty and maintains that capital punishment is disproportionately applied to African-Americans convicted of crimes against whites. The programme features attorney Clive Stafford Smith, a noted advocate against capital punishment.

Fourteen Days in May won a British Film Institute Grierson Award and a top prize at the Festival dei Populi. It has been shown in many countries but has only appeared in an abbreviated form in the United States, on HBO. Hamann disowned this shortened version.

It was in direct response to this documentary that the Lifelines organisation was set up, to organise pen pals for death row prisoners.

The 1988 rap track '14 Days in May' by UK rapper Overlord X contains samples from this documentary and can be found on the compilation album Street Sounds Hip Hop 20.
Trailer of Fourteen Days in May

Bluray, DVD

Streaming / VOD

Source : Wikidata

Comments


Leave comment :

Suggestions of similar film to Fourteen Days in May

There are 8953 with the same cinematographic genres, 1771 films with the same themes (including 16 films with the same 4 themes than Fourteen Days in May), to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.

If you liked Fourteen Days in May, you will probably like those similar films :
Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance
Carl Panzram: The Spirit of Hatred and Vengeance (2011)
, 1h20
Directed by John Borowski
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Crime
Themes Prison films, Documentary films about law, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Serial killer films, Films about capital punishment, Documentary films about law enforcement
Actors John DiMaggio
Rating62% 3.148053.148053.148053.148053.14805
A lifelong criminal and serial killer, Carl Panzram befriends Henry Lesser, a young jail guard at the Washington DC jail in 1928. After hearing of Panzram's torture, Lesser sends Panzram one dollar and convinces the killer to write his autobiography while secretly supplying him with pencil and paper. Panzram writes over 40,000 words documenting his entire life of incarceration, torture, rape, and murder.
At the Death House Door
At the Death House Door (2008)
, 1h38
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Crime
Themes Prison films, Documentary films about law, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Films about capital punishment, Documentary films about law enforcement
Rating71% 3.574123.574123.574123.574123.57412
Pickett presided over 95 executions in his 15 year career, including the very first by lethal injection. He kept his feelings about his work from his family, instead audiotaping an account of each one. Initially pro-execution, he became an anti-death penalty activist.
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer
Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003)
, 1h29
Directed by Nick Broomfield
Genres Drama, Documentary, Crime
Themes Prison films, Documentary films about law, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Serial killer films, Films about capital punishment, Documentary films about law enforcement
Actors Nick Broomfield
Rating70% 3.5461753.5461753.5461753.5461753.546175
The film focuses on an evidentiary hearing held in Marion County, Florida in February of 2001 which was the site of some but not all of Wuornos' murders for which she was convicted and sentenced to death. It shows the work of the Office of Capital Collateral Regional counsel, led by attorney Joseph T. Hobson who is both interviewed and featured in the film and who seeks to vacate Wuornos' death sentences. It shows Judge Victor Musleh presiding over these proceedings and assistant state attorney, now judge, James McCune who defended the death sentences for the State of Florida. Hobson is shown vigorously cross-examining Wuornos' trial counsel, Steven Glazer, aka "Dr. Legal". Glazer was the unflattering subject of a prior Broomfield documentary on Aileen Wuornos, somewhat the "prequel" to this work, called Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer. It was Hobson's line of attack that the efficacy of his client's (Wuornos') trial strategy was compromised by Glazer's pecuniary and self-promotional aims.
Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation
Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Salvation (2007)
, 1h26
Directed by John Borowski
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Horror, Historical, Crime
Themes Prison films, Documentary films about law, Serial killer films, Films about capital punishment, Documentary films about law enforcement
Actors Tony Jay
Rating55% 2.7525852.7525852.7525852.7525852.752585
(DVD description) Albert Fish tells the horrific true story of a sadomasochistic cannibal, child molester, and serial killer, who lured children to their deaths in Depression-era New York City. Elderly but still deadly, Fish was inspired by biblical tales as he took the stories of pain, punishment, atonement, and suffering literally as he preyed on victims to torture and sacrifice.
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999)
, 1h31
Directed by Errol Morris
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Documentary
Themes Prison films, Films about racism, Films about religion, Documentary films about racism, Documentary films about law, Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events, Documentaire sur une personnalité, Documentary films about religion, Political films, Films about capital punishment, Films about Jews and Judaism, Documentary films about World War II, Documentary films about law enforcement, Négationnisme
Actors Errol Morris
Rating74% 3.7455253.7455253.7455253.7455253.745525
Using film made at American prisons, Leuchter talked about his upbringing where his father was a corrections officer. Through his family associations, young Leuchter claimed he was able to witness an execution performed in an electric chair. Leuchter's impression of the event was that the electric chairs used by American prisons were unsafe and often ineffective. The event led him to design modifications to the device that were adopted by many American states.
The Thin Blue Line
The Thin Blue Line (1988)
, 1h43
Directed by Errol Morris
Origin USA
Genres Documentary, Crime
Themes Prison films, Documentary films about law, Films about capital punishment, Documentary films about law enforcement
Actors Errol Morris, Marianne Leone Cooper
Rating78% 3.948023.948023.948023.948023.94802
The story began on Thanksgiving weekend in 1976. In October 1976, 28-year-old Randall Adams and his brother had left Ohio. They were driving to California. En route, they arrived in Dallas on the night of Thanksgiving, Thursday 25 November 1976. The next morning, Adams was offered a job. On Saturday, 27 November Adams went to start work at his new job but no one turned up because it was a weekend. On the way home, his car ran out of fuel.