About the Screening
How does a 16 year-old honor student evolve into a bank robber? In Evolution of a Criminal, filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe asks this very question—about himself. After seeing his mother struggle to make ends meet, Monroe decided to help by robbing a bank with two friends. In the film, Monroe interviews his family members, close friends and mentors who recount the stages of his transformation, going from a joyous childhood to the moment he realized the severity of his family’s financial problems, and how their struggles changed his outlook on society and his life as a whole. It is a story of a good kid gone bad, economic injustice, poverty, race, and the plight of young black men in America. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary and the Director’s Award at Full Frame 2014, this film is not to be missed.