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DAVID & ME

By Ray KLONSKY, Marc LAMY

Documentary - Completed 2014

When troubled teen Ray Klonsky began writing letters to prison inmate David McCallum, both of their lives changed forever. Hundreds of letters later, Ray graduated from university determined to set his wrongly convicted friend free.

- Year of production
- 2014
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- CANADA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 70 mn
- Director(s)
- Ray KLONSKY, Marc LAMY
- Writer(s)
- Ray KLONSKY, Marc LAMY
- Cast
- David MCCALLUM, Ray KLONSKY
- ISAN
- 0000-0003-CAA6-0000-X-0000-0000-C
- Producer(s)
- Judy HOLM (Markham Street Films Inc.), Michael MCNAMARA (Markham Street Films Inc.), Aaron HANCOX (Markham Street Films Inc.)
- Synopsis
- A documentary about two unlikely friends - a convicted murderer and a young, Canadian filmmaker. David McCallum is 29 years into a life sentence. Despite a mountain of evidence that should exonerate David, or at least grant him a new trial, filmmaker Ray Klonsky and a pro-bono team are stymied by a justice system that is not designed to free the wrongly convicted. When news of a DNA match that fingers a new suspect surfaces, the team thinks justice will finally be served. But they quickly learn their fight has only just begun.
  
  "I've thought about it and I could not see myself standing in front of anyone and admitting guilt in this crime, and if it takes me dying in prison, I will do that. I'd rather die in prison. And that's the truth." -David McCallum
  
  You've probably never heard of David McCallum - his case has not garnered the attention of Mumia Abu-Jamal or David Milgaard in Canada - but for a quarter century, in relative obscurity, he has been tirelessly fighting to overturn his 1985 conviction for murder. When Ray Klonsky, a troubled Toronto teenager, began a letter correspondence with David McCallum, both of their lives changed forever. David helped Ray straighten out and Ray, in turn, has sustained David with hope during imprisonment in a New York State penitentiary. But what started as a simple friendship became a fight for justice with high-powered lawyers, world-renowned experts - including Rubin 'The Hurricane' Carter - and concerned citizens coming together to fight for David's innocence and freedom. After befriending David, Ray set out to make a documentary about David's story, chronicling the ongoing efforts to fight his conviction. Now, nearly 10 years later, Klonsky and the team makes one final push for justice to be served. Cameras follow Ray every step of the way as they hit the streets in search of that one piece of evidence or witness testimony that could get the case back into court and ultimately free David. David & Me is not just another wrongful conviction documentary; it is the real story of how a convicted murderer and a young Canadian filmmaker changed both of their lives forever.