About the Film

Every day in the United States, two people die waiting for trial. More than 400,000 others sit in jail on any given day - presumed innocent, yet trapped in a legal limbo known as pretrial detention. 

For many, freedom hinges not on guilt or public safety, but on wealth. Despite its devastating human and financial cost, pretrial detention remains one of the least understood and most overlooked crises in the American justice system. It quietly disrupts families, destabilizes communities, fuels jail deaths, and erodes constitutional rights, all before a verdict is ever reached. In Mississippi people have been held years without continuous legal representation in a situation called "The Dead Zone," an apt descriptor for many jails across the country. As political polarization deepens amidst public safety concerns, and “tough on crime” tactics resurge, meaningful change grows more fragile and urgent.

The Dead Zone is a feature documentary following four Americans fighting to fix this system from the inside. Intimate, urgent, and surprising, their personal stories unite to unveil a crisis, show you how we got here, and replace fear-based narratives with truth, nuance, and hope.

The film confronts this crisis through unprecedented access and intimate, character-driven storytelling. Filmed over four years across the American South, we meet a district attorney, a public defender, a criminal court judge, and a man who lost six years of his life to pretrial detention before being found innocent.

Rather than simplifying the issue, The Dead Zone humanizes its complexity. The film breaks down silos between courtroom adversaries and reveals where their interests unexpectedly align: public safety, fairness, and dignity. By weaving their stories together, the film exposes how pretrial detention actually works - and how it can change. 

Audiences get an insider, front-row, seat to fast-paced, unexpected events like attempts to remove elected officials, high stakes courtroom legal battles, and touching moments of levity and raw humanity. This is not an abstract policy film. The Dead Zone uses the power of documentary storytelling to remind us of core values: innocent until proven guilty, fairness, and accountability to enlighten public understanding.

Meet the Team

From the Director

"I've spent years working as a journalist and human rights investigator. The more I dug into pretrial detention, the harder it became to look away. People who hadn't been convicted of anything were losing their jobs, homes, even their kids, often just because they couldn’t afford bail. But there was and remains a real fear about crime and public safety. After over 50 interviews, attending bounty hunter bootcamps, speaking with sheriffs, community voices, legal experts, advocates and analyzing legal reports I realized two things. First, the full story of the pretrial system wasn’t being fully examined - positions of power were siloed and so were Americans. Second, that there were captivating people on the front lines, inside the system, whose powerful stories could bring us closer to truth at a time of raging polarization, policy swings and rising jail deaths.

This is a “verite” film, meaning we filmed as observationally as possible, mostly just one or two people at a time. Five years ago, I didn’t know what would happen, just that these four fascinating people passionate about addressing the crisis from their corner of the courtroom were working against all odds to find solutions to prevent more jail deaths and increase public safety in their communities. After years of filming, I’ve witnessed births, deaths, love stories, historic legal battles to remove elected officials from office, celebratory cigar nights after big cases, and late night karaoke sessions at public defender conferences.

At its heart, The Dead Zone is about bringing humanity back to a system that's lost it, and helping to reimagining the typical “justice” doc. This film holds two things in tension: the intimacy of lives lived up close, the urgency of a system failing in real time and the potential for innovation." - Emily Thomas, Director, Producer and DP.

The Team

Director Emily Thomas came to this story having reported on crime for Huffington Post and VICE, as well as investigating human rights abuses. As a filmmaker, she's covered a range of stories including unjust pretrial detention, people facing life in prison for murder, and lesson learned from the war in Afghanistan. This led her to see up close that freedom in America too often comes down to who can afford it. She is backed by an expert team of Emmy award winning and Oscar nominated filmmakers who believe in the power of documentary film to expose what's broken and how fix it. Producer John Toner, a native Kentuckian rooted in the South is dedicated to impact storytelling, producer Nicole Docta is a Sundance Fellow and producer of Belly of the Beast and Through the Night; editor Jason Pollard has worked on Oscar nominated films (Slavery by Another Name, The Black Church); and EP Carolyn Hepburn is an Emmy- and Peabody-winning executive producer (The Velvet Underground, One Child Nation).

Three Reasons Your Support Matters Now

1. We’re at the Finish Line. If we reach our goal now, we'll have a finished film by this fall, ready for festivals and an impact campaign launch. The Dead Zone is in post-production, with nearly 90 percent of footage filmed. Remaining funds will support final filming, editing, post-production, archival licensing, music, and impact campaign planning, the critical steps to complete the film and bring it to audiences nationwide.
2. Your investment now is catalytic. Early supporters like the Schooner Foundation, Sundance Institute, the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Women in Film and Video DC, and the Kentucky Bar Foundation have laid essential groundwork. At this stage, donor support has outsized impact: it bridges the final funding gap and transforms years of reporting and filming into a finished film with national reach.
3. This is a film made for this moment. At a time when the world feels more divided and real solutions more distant than ever, storytelling can reveal genuine paths forward. More than 400,000 people sit in pretrial detention right now. And unlike those wrongly convicted and later exonerated, people held for months or years before trial have no right to compensation, restitution, or even an apology when found not guilty. Many people are concerned about public safety. Whether your concerned about rising crime or ICE detentions, this film meets the moment.

This is a moment that demands attention—and action. Your gift to support The Dead Zone helps shine a light on a life-and-death crisis hidden in plain sight and support a powerful tool for education, dialogue, and reform.

As a fiscally sponsored project of Women Make Movies (501(c)(3)), all contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Follow the Dead Zone on Instagram: @thedeadzonefilm

Give Now

Our $52,500 Goal — Minimum Budget

All amounts below include Women Make Movies 6% fiscal sponsor administrative fee and fair compensation for experienced professional support

• Editing — $15,750: Help our edit team take us from rough cut to picture lock in time for key festival submissions and create deliverables for our festival premiere.
• Music/Composer — $15,750: Support the creation of a moving, original score for the film by an Emmy-winning composer
• Color Correction — $10,500: Professional colorist and post studio will unify 4 years of footage into one cohesive look
• Sound Mix - $10,500 - A professional post studio will mix the final audio of the film delivery a 5.1 surround sound mix and making the film ready for all platforms - theaters, TV's, phones and laptops

Extended Goal - $25,500

• Final Post Production: Final post-production, final delivery and festival deadlines - $16,500
• Archival - $4,000: Licensing historical material and production stills
• Insurance (E&O + General Liability) — $5,000: Errors & omissions insurance and liability coverage required for festival submissions, distribution, and production 

For this campaign, no AI was used to generate any images, footage or any component of this film