Documentary follows Magdalena marshal, war on drugs

But it wasn’t until two years ago when camera crews came into Magdalena to film a documentary that Cearley felt nervous.

“I’ve never had anyone following us so close,” he explains. “It was nerve-wracking because I constantly worried about their safety while they were filming.”

	On TV The documentary, “The House I Live In” will premiere at 10 p.m. Saturday, April 13 on PBS Channel 5. It was filmed in more than 20 states and features footage from the police department in Magdalena.

Cearley is the marshal and runs the police department in Magdalena.

And for nearly two years – on and off – crews with the documentary “The House I Live In” followed Cearley and his staff.

The documentary was directed by Eugene Jarecki and picked up the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in 2012. It will air at 10 p.m. Saturday, April 13 on PBS. It will also re-air at 9 p.m. April 18 on PBS channel 9.

The documentary focuses on the war on drugs.

Jarecki says in 40 years the war on drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. “Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer and more available today than ever before,” he says.

Jarecki and crew filmed in more than 20 states in order to capture the heart-wrenching stories from individuals at all levels of this war on drugs.

He says from the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, he wanted the film to offer a penetrating look inside America’s longest war – a definitive portrait revealing its profound human rights implications.

“The film recognizes the seriousness of drug abuse as a matter of public health, and investigates the tragic errors and shortcomings that have meant this symptom is most often treated as a cause for law enforcement, creating a vast machine that largely feeds on America’s poor, and especially on minority communities,” Jarecki says. “Beyond simple misguided policy, it examines how political and economic corruption have fueled the war for 40 years, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures.”

Jarecki says the drug war in America has helped establish the largest prison-industrial system in the world, contributing to the incarceration of 2.3 million men and women – more than Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran combined – and is responsible for untold collateral damage to the lives of countless individuals and families.

He says instead of questioning a campaign of such epic cost and failure, those in public office generally advocate for harsher penalties for drug offenses, lest they be perceived as soft on crime.

Cearley says his involvement with the film began on a trial basis.

“When Eugene came in, he didn’t know exactly which direction the film was going in,” he says. “What he began seeing is what it takes to work and support everything that we do. For nearly two years, it was trying at times because our department is small and we still handled calls while they were here.”

Cearley says some of the checkpoints that officers set up made it into the film.

“There was one incident where we set up a decoy to catch offenders,” he says. “And then the situation just blew up and we had to respond. I think the crew was very happy to actually have an actual incident captured on film.”

While the war on drugs continues, Cearley says the documentary does give insight to the fact that it costs so much money to fight this battle.

“It also relates to the fact of what it takes for police officers to actually do this job,” he says. “It gets to the question of how much does it really cost from the ground up. From the officers patrolling to the equipment they use. Then you have to think about how much it costs to prosecute these cases. That eats up a lot. It’s great insight to what’s happening today and how it needs to be fixed.”

Cearley says he’d like to see a second film that delves into the actual battle on marijuana and prescription pills.

“There are so many facets to this battle that I have to keep my officers in the know about street names for drugs,” he says. “This kind of selling uses so many different names that education is key for my officers. We have to keep up with that in addition to our regular duties. We not only have to be policeman, we have to be chemists and attorneys and so on. It’s a battle that doesn’t seem to end.”

SEND ME YOUR TIPS: If you know of a movie filming in the state, or are curious about one, email film@ABQjournal.com. Follow me on Twitter @agomezART.