Mi Vida Dentro (My Life Inside)

The American justice system has long proved a fruitful hunting ground for documentary makers on the look out for injustices to expose. In Mi Vida Dentro Mexican director Lucía Gajá zeroes in on the trial of Rosa Estela Olvera in Austin, Texas. Rosa, an illegal immigrant who made her living as a child minder, is accused of killing a toddler in her care, though she maintains the death was accidental. Through interviews with Rosa, her family, officials and other illegal immigrants, Gajá suggests an American courtroom is a hard place to find justice if you happen to be poor, female and Mexican. Artfully directed and powerfully affecting, the documentary reaches its climax with the verdict. Yet after this flush of drama and emotion there is a disquieting sense that we have not been privy to the whole story, and that in her determination to make her point Gajá has perhaps risked being too partisan. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]