Directed by Jay Rosenstein • Documentary • With Vashti McCollum • 2010 • 57 minutes
"The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today" is a Peabody Award-winning documentary that tells the compelling personal story of the late Vashti McCollum, and how her efforts to protect her ten year-old son led to one of the most important and landmark First Amendment cases in U.S. Supreme Court history - the case that established the separation of church and state in public schools. The case is little-known by the contemporary American public, yet the McCollum decision continues to have important ramifications for current conflicts over the role of religion in public institutions - from displays of the Ten Commandments in government buildings to student-led prayers at public school graduation ceremonies.
The film recounts what Vashti McCollum later described as "three years of headlines, headaches, and hatred," and the dramatic legal maneuverings that led to a decision that shocked the nation and made the McCollums a household name. "Beautifully researched" according to the Peabody Awards, perhaps one reviewer described it best: "The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today (tells) a little-known story of a woman, a court case, and a movement that changed American society forever."
Up Next in New Day Films
-
Trust Me
Directed by Joe Phelps, Rosemary Smith and Roko Belic • Documentary • With Steven Pinker • 2020 • 90 minutes
Trust Me explores why humankind is attracted to stories about violence, how media outlets capitalize on that, and how we gather and share information and misinformation in the digital age...
-
Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I Love You, Mommy)
Directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal • Documentary • 2010 • 76 minutes
In 2007 Donna and Jeff Sadowsky of Long Island, New York submitted their dossier to adopt eight-year old Fang Sui Yong from Guangzhou, China. From the very first moment Sui Yong meets her new mother, Donna, we get a real sense of...
-
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Ma...
Directed by Lisa Merton Alan Dater • Documentary • 2008 • 80 minutes
TAKING ROOT tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democra...
