Broken

Cambridge, Massachusetts | Film Feature

Documentary

Bill Lichtenstein

6 Campaigns | Massachusetts, United States

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Every year 400,000 kids are removed from their families and placed in foster care. But for 6 in 7 children, it's not for abuse but for neglect, which conflates with poverty. Help us complete this landmark investigation and documentary exposing these fatally-flawed systems -- and help save lives.

About The Project

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Mission Statement

Broken follows the multi-year investigation by journalist Brooke Lewitas of the failed $1.4 billion-per-year Massachusetts child welfare system, which for decades has been among the worst in the country for the care and protection of children to expose its serious problems and offer real solutions.

The Story

“Broken”


Summary

Broken is a new, feature-length investigative documentary that exposes the fatal flaws in the child protection, foster care and juvenile court systems in Massachusetts -- set against child welfare nationally.


The documentary follows 24-year-old reporter Brooke Lewitas as she investigates and unravels the untold story of this failed $1.4 billion dollar a year childcare and protection industry in Massachusetts which, despite the state’s reputation, resources, and know-how, has been ranked for decades among the worst states in the nation for the care and protection of children.


The film is being produced by Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and journalist Bill Lichtenstein, who brings to the project his four decades of covering child welfare issues nationally.


The Film

Each year in the United States, more than 400,000 children are removed from their families and put into foster care. In Massachusetts, 8,000 kids each year are taken from their homes and placed in foster care.


But for six in seven of these children, their removal is not for abuse but for what is called neglect, which all too often stems from issues conflated with poverty such as the lack of food, shelter, childcare, or medicine.


And once in foster care, children can face horrific abuse -- and worse.



Broken exposes:


  • ·        Documented accounts of horrific abuse of children in state funded foster and group homes;


  • ·        The disappearance of more than 4,000 kids and the unexplained deaths of hundreds of children in Massachusetts state care over the past five years;


  • ·        A legally flawed system for removing kids from their families which allows state social workers to remove children without a court order, often leaving the children -- and their families -- traumatized;


  • ·        A groundbreaking investigation into the uses of the state’s $1.4 billion annual budget to care for 8,000 foster kids; and


  • ·        How families of color, those with disabilities, and living in poverty, as well as families experiencing other forms of marginalization are disproportionately targeted by the system of child removal.


  • The “foster care to prison pipeline,” which results in one in four foster kids becoming involved with the criminal justice system within two years of leaving foster care.



Using Massachusetts as a case study, the film will examine the ways in which a system with all the right resources can become a failure. Finally, Broken will look at states which more effectively are able to strengthen families and offer care and protection for children in need and at risk – with removal of children being the last resort, rather than the first.


Broken will be released for festival, theatrical, and public television distribution followed by home and educational video. The documentary will be accompanied by a national Impact Campaign which will include community engagement and educational outreach efforts to help create an unprecedented national dialogue about the nation’s child protection, foster care, and juvenile court systems – as well as what it would take to strengthen families and keep children safe.



Context We are in the process of raising the additional funding needed to finish editing the film for release in 2025, which will include a public television broadcast (we are currently listed in the 2025 public television Pipeline).


CONTEXT

The powerful film trailer for Broken has already gotten people talking – and has been invited to screen at two film festivals, including the Newburyport (MA) Documentary Film Festival and the Social Impact Film Festival, as a work-in-progress.


Currently we have completed production for the film including shooting all interviews, and are working to complete the editing and post-production for a release in 2025. Like LCMedia's other productions, the film will be released for festival and theatrical screenings to be following by broadcast on public television. The film is in the public television Pipeline for broadcast in 2025 and will be accompanied by a deep national educational outreach and community engagement campaign to help bring about measurable change to the nation's child protection, foster care, and juvenile court system.


But we can't do it without your help!



The film can and will make a difference and will save lives.


Please help us reach our goal by pledging your donation now and help complete the editing for release in 2025.

Wishlist

Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.

Office Costs

Costs $7,200

Rental of production office space and edit room and related costs for six months for the completion of editing and post-production.

Production staff

Costs $12,400

Staff and production crew fees for six months to complete editing and post-production of "Broken."

Cash Pledge

Costs $0

Color Correction and Sound Mix

Costs $8,000

Digital color correction and studio sound mix of final cut for release of "Broken."

Editing Equipment and Supplies

Costs $1,600

Digital editing equipment and supplies including external drives and online digital services for six months to complete editing.

Archival Material

Costs $2,800

Rights for archival material to complete the editing and post-production of "Broken."

About This Team


Team and Approach


Broken represents an unprecedented reporting effort involving a seasoned journalist with experience covering child welfare systems nationally for more than 40 years; an intrepid young reporter and journalism students engaging in enterprise reporting; and leading experts in child welfare doing what the media and public officials have been unable to do: identify and expose the underlying systemic problems and highlight changes and reforms that can and will help fix broken child welfare and family support systems -- and save lives.


The documentary is being produced by LCMedia Productions, Inc. (Lichtenstein Creative Media), the 30-year-old Cambridge-based independent media production company started by Bill Lichtenstein, a Peabody Award-winning print and broadcast journalist and documentary producer who has covered issues related to child welfare and state custody of children on a national level going back to the early 1980s. Bill’s work spans more than 50 years and has been honored with more than 60 major journalism awards including a George Foster Peabody Award; United Nations Media Award; three National News Emmy Award nominations; eight National Headliner Awards; honored twice by the Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism about Disadvantaged Children; and four Gracie Awards from the American Women in Radio and TV, along with other journalism honors.


Producer Bill Lichtenstein has extensive experience covering state agencies and youth-at-risk including:

  • Producing investigative reports at ABC News, Bill was on the 20/20 team that broke the story of the Atlanta child murders, and his two-part 1982 report on 20/20 that resulted from a nine-month undercover investigation into the deaths of children in state custody in Oklahoma, which led to an overhaul of the state’s human services department and the resignation of its longtime director. Subsequently, the state’s child advocacy agency, the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, established a media award for reporting on children’s issues in Bill’s and his co-producer’s names.
  • If I Get Out Alive, a one-hour radio documentary narrated by Academy Award-winner and child advocate Diane Keaton, which was the first to expose the systematic abuse and brutality faced by juveniles in the adult prison system, as well as examining alternative sentencing programs that are successful in diverting young offenders from prison.
  • Bill was a 2005 Guggenheim Fellow and spent a year studying the intersection of child protection and foster care; children’s mental health; education; and the family court systems, and the need for coordinated care for youth-at-risk that involves all four areas.
  • Bill’s article, "Mass. Problems for Kids" for the Huffington Post exposed that more than 100 kids had died while in the custody of Mass. DCF over a three-year period, as well as a myriad of fatal problems in the Massachusetts state child welfare system. See: http://tinyurl.com/HuffPostkids


Reporter Brooke Lewitas has worked in university, local, and national newsrooms, including as a reporter and columnist for the Virginia-based Fairfax Times, and as the editor-in-chief of the Boston University News Service. Brooke’s work includes being a reporter and columnist for the Fairfax (VA) Times and serving as the managing editor of the Boston University News Service. Brooke’s reporting on this story began as part of her Master’s project while at Boston University College of Communication, and she has spent the last two years identifying, interviewing, and forming journalistic relationships with parents and families that have been affected by the Massachusetts child welfare system, along with experts in the field, and brings her work to this project as the documentary follows her reporting on the story.


Director of Photography Rob Massey films for CBS, ABC, and NBC News, CNN, and PBS, and independent documentaries.


Consulting producer Peter Miller is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who has co-produced PBS documentaries by Ken Burns.


Executive Producer Sridhar Tayur is an Academic Capitalist and Philanthropist: University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University.


Executive Producer Robert Sennott is an entrepreneur, investor, and producer. Rob also was an Executive Producer of the documentaries "76 Days" and "WBCN and The American Revolution."


Publicist Chris Kelly/5th House Public Relations has 25 years of working in public relations including as senior publicist for the award-winning PBS documentary series Frontline.


Investigative reporter Brooke Williams is collaborating on the investigation of the finances of the state’s child welfare system along with her students at Boston University, whose groundbreaking work will be included as part of the film’s narrative.


The Broken Board of Advisors, which will help ensure the precision, accuracy, and balance of the film, includes:


  • Alan Dettlaff, former University of Houston Dean of Social Work and founder of upEND movement;
  • Amanda Wallace, former child abuse investigator and founder of Operation STOP CPS;
  • Bill Betencourt, Senior Fellow at the Center for Study of Social Policy and former Deputy Director of San Francisco’s Division of Children Youth and Families;
  • Caroline Clauss-Ehlers, psychology professor at Long Island University and former Chair, APA Task Force on Re-envisioning Multicultural Guidelines;
  • Dr. Eli Newberger, pediatrician and prolific expert on child abuse who established the first-ever child protection unit at Boston Children’s Hospital 50 years ago;
  • Dr. Carolyn Newberger, has spent decades forging a dual career in research and teaching. Since then, she's forged another as an artist and writer.
  • Gary Bailey, Assistant Dean, Community Engagement and Social Justice, Simmons University School of Social Work;
  • Irene Linda Gordon, award-winning historian and writer on feminism and women’s issues;
  • Judge Jay Blitzman (ret.), former First Justice, Massachusetts Juvenile Court and lecturer, Harvard Law School;
  • Joe Dorman, CEO, Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy;
  • Josh Gupta-Kagan, clinical law professor at Columbia University, and Family Defense Clinic director;
  • Joyce McMillan, advocate and executive director of JMAC for Families;
  • Kate Lowenstein, Multisystem Youth Services Coordinator for Citizens for Juvenile Justice;
  • Martha Raimon, Center for Study of Social Policy, who leads their monitoring of New Jersey’s compliance with federal child welfare consent decree;
  • Martha Minow, professor at Harvard Law School and Dean of Harvard Law School from 2009 to 2017;
  • Dr. Mical Raz, historian studying American psychiatry, poverty, and politics; and
  • Richard Wexler, executive director, National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.


Current Team

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