Community Cinema , “Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story”

This is the discussion following the screening of "Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story" February 24, 2011 at the Champaign Public Library. Illinois Public Media partnered with Access Initiative, Champaign and Peer Ambassadors to present this screening.

Tracy Dace and Shalonda Sayles represented Peer Ambassadors and Carol Bradford and Shandra Summerville represented Access Initiative on the panel. Jack Brighton of Illinois Public Media moderated the discussion. There were about 75 people in the audience.

In 2004, Cyntoia Brown was arrested for murder. There was no question that a 43-year-old man is dead and that she killed him. What mystified filmmaker Daniel Birman was just how common violence among youth is, and just how rarely we stop to question our assumptions about it. He wondered in this case what led a girl - who grew-up in a reasonable home environment - to this tragic end? Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story explores Cyntoia's life.