“Out In The Night” documents struggle of the ‘Jersey Four’

The Afrikana Film Festival presented the Richmond premiere of the film, “Out In The Night,” at the Bijou Theater followed by a Q&A followed the screening with the film’s director Blair Dorosh-Walther and Renata Hill.

The film chronicles the events of August 2006 when four women, Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Venice Brown, Terrain Dandrige ― all black lesbian women ― were sentenced unjustly to jail after being attacked in New York City.

Each spoke about their experiences throughout the process as the film reveals racist and homophobic undertones in the U.S. justice system.

All from the New Jersey area, the women formed a friendship around their identities and soon started going out to gay-friendly places. One hot night in August, the four went to see a movie. As they left the theatre, a black male began heckling them, making comments that inferred rape, such as “Lemme get some of that.”

When he recognized they were lesbians, the man turned violent assaults the women. During the altercation, the man spits, throws a cigarette, rips the hair out of two of the women and chokes them. In their defense, Johnson grabs a knife and stabs the man. When the cops come, each of the women were arrested and eventually found guilty on various counts of assault, use of a weapon and attempted murder.

During this time, the media takes hold of the controversy and begins to publish homophobic headlines. “Attack of the Killer Lesbians” read an issue of the NY Post. Labeling the group of women as a gang, the media firestorm turned their night of assault to one of shame. At their sentencing, Brown receives five years, Dandrige receives three years, Hill, who has a young son, receives 8 years and Johnson receives 11 years.

While they’re in jail, the four begin to fight against their controversial sentencing. Going through the appellate court, the women worked to reduce some of their sentences and all got released at different times.

“I never allowed the situation to break me,” Hill said after the screening.

Dorosh-Walther said the hardest part of filming the documentary was funding and trying not to follow each of the women too closely.

When asked about her now 15-year-old son, Hill said she is proud and details the imporant  role he played in her time in prison.

“I take pride in being a mother so that’s what I was thinking about. How was he gonna perceive this and who was going to take care of him,” Hill said. “Up until then, I believed in the system. I thought everything was there. Then I realized that everything was against us. He attacked us and we defended ourselves. It was a complete surprise.”

Proud of the film’s response, Dorosh-Walther said the film has gotten great support from festivals and universities around the country. In addition, she said she hopes that the film serves as a turning point in the discussion of similar issues in the country.

Muktaru Jalloh, Staff Writer

Muktaru is a graduate student working on a Master’s of Teaching after earning an undergraduate degree in English and Political Science. In addition to writing for the CT, he also co-founds his own music and arts site, STROKES N RHYMES. Topic areas Muktaru enjoys covering include music, sports and pop culture.

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