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This explosive documentary takes a behind the scenes look at one of America’s most pressing human rights struggles, and asks the audience: what would you do, if this violence found its way to your doorstep? 

Synopsis

On April 30, 2014, Dontre Hamilton, a 31-year-old unarmed black man diagnosed with schizophrenia, was shot 14 times and killed by a Milwaukee police officer in a popular downtown park. Dontre's death sparked months of unrest and galvanized his family to activism. Filmed over three years in the direct aftermath of his death, this intimate verité documentary follows his family as they struggle to find answers and challenge a criminal justice system stacked against them. With Dontre’s mother, Maria, and brother, Nate, as our guides, we take a painful look inside a movement born of personal tragedy and injustice. This explosive documentary takes a behind the scenes look at one of America’s most pressing human rights struggles, and asks the audience: what would you do, if this violence found its way to your doorstep? 

 

“Everyone’s story is different. Everyone’s path is different. You don’t know what’s actually gonna hit you in life.”—Nate “Junior” Hamilton, film subject, The Blood Is at the Doorstep

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Credits

Erik Ljung

Director

Erik Ljung is a freelance Producer and Director of Photography currently based in the midwest. He has produced content and short documentaries for the New York Times, VICE News, Al Jazeera, PBS and the Wall Street Journal. In 2016 he won a midwest Emmy for his work on public television's Wisconsin Foodie. His cinematography can be seen on CNN’s The 414’s, which premiered at Sundance, and Almost Sunrise slated to air on POV in 2017. He is a former Nohl Fellow, and a two-time Brico Forward Fund recipient for his documentary work.