Unseen

The 2009 arrest and subsequent trial of Anthony Sowell gripped the city of Cleveland and the nation. Having kidnapped, raped, and murdered 11 women from the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, Sowell then buried his victims' bodies within the floorboards, walls, and grounds of his home where they were eventually found by police. These circumstances led to a media blitz that asked how an unemployed ex-convict could so easily get away with such horrible crimes for so long. UNSEEN is a documentary that works to set the record straight on that very topic, including interviews with family members of the victims and the courageous women who managed to escape. In each of the survivors' stories, going to the police resulted in being dismissed or half-heartedly investigated all because the women were drug addicts. Intense and agonizing, UNSEEN gives an unflinching and unapologetic look at a system of justice that has clearly lifted the blindfold and judges books based on covers. How many women died in the house of horrors because of a discriminatory attitude towards the poor and drug addicted? Unfortunately, we may never know. (Cleveland International Film Festival)