by FilmInk Staff
What could conservative billionaire Charles Koch and dope-smoking rapper Snoop Dogg possibly have in common?
The answer, it seems, is concern about some of the injustices being committed as part of the US government’s War on Drugs, and the seemingly criminal lengths that law enforcement will go to in order to ruin the lives of anyone dabbling in dealing, especially when that person happens to be an uppity white guy consorting with black hip-hop artists, and making a name for himself in that performatively ‘gangsta’ scene.
Meet Weldon Angelo, a young dad from Utah with a passion for hip-hop music, whose talent and entrepreneurial drive gain him some success on the West Coast scene. Back home he supplements his income by selling a little weed. The local cops don’t like him and go out of their way to bring him down.
His appalling experience is told in the documentary film Unlikely Allies, a story of police entrapment (fuelled, it is suggested, by racism) and a judiciary trapped into imposing insanely severe sentences. Police machinations include introducing a gun into the scene of the crime, making the term Weldon receives for nickel and dime offences a mandatory 55 years – effectively a life sentence.
Weldon does some serious time but as a result of relentless advocacy work by his grieving sister, a team forms across the nation seeking to right the terrible wrong. Among them are Koch and Dogg, the unlikely allies of the title, but also entertainers from Tupac Shakur’s Outlawz to Alicia Keys and a bi-partisan host of elected and appointed government officials, celebrities, advocates, business leaders, and myriad media outlets.
One of his supporters, tellingly, was the judge who was forced to impose the punishment – a conservative George W. Bush appointee named Paul Cassell – who described the sentence as “cruel, unjust, and even irrational”. Conscience-stricken, Judge Cassell resigned from a life-time appointment to the federal bench to advocate for Weldon’s release.
Even then-President Trump got in on the act, signing the get out of jail document – a move he later walked back on, as director Anthony Pedone makes clear in a disclaimer made after the film was finished.
Weldon was finally released after serving 13 years, just in time to see his oldest son, who he had not seen in person for almost 10 years, graduate from high school. He now campaigns on behalf of the thousands of men and women locked up for trivial offences in the living hells of federal prisons.
Unlikely Allies has drama, suspense, outrage, laughter, and huge amounts of exciting music.
Pedone is no stranger to the inside of a cell himself. An addiction saw him receive a five-year prison sentence in 2001. He made the most of his time, taking on the role of a GED teacher, and educating and graduating almost 100 of his fellow inmates. At the same time, he furthered his own education through Penn State’s distance learning and earned a certificate in Writing Social Commentary – a foundation that would later fuel his documentary endeavours.
His work as a narrative director include the globally recognised An American in Texas, One Nation Under Stress, It’s Basic, and the Emmy-nominated Stockton On My Mind. His work has premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, Locarno and Slamdance, to name a few.
His work also features on prominent streaming platforms like Max, Amazon, Hulu, PBS and Peacock.
Unlikely Allies screens at 5pm on Sunday, October 27 in an Australian Premiere at Palace Cinemas Byron Bay.
For more information and tickets, visit bbff.com.au
