La Voz

Issue date: 6/22/09 Section: A&E

"Making the River," shown on campus June 3, is a documentary about the life of a Native American man named Jimi Simmons. The film documents his life from when he was taken by social workers as a baby, all the way through his trial for a murder he did not commit.

Simmons was made a ward of the state at just 17 months old and moved around foster homes, orphanages, juvenile detention and state correctional facilities. By the time Simmons was 24 years old, he had spent only six months in the free world. He grew up not knowing where he was born or who his family was and spent many years of his life in the Washington State penitentiary.

The prison was known as one of the most dangerous in the country. Otherwise known as Concrete Mama, it was a place where stabbings were common place and the guards had little control over the inmates.

Things took an even greater turn for the worse in 1979 when a guard by the name of Sgt. William Cross was killed during a scuffle involving Simmons, his brother and a close friend. The result would be the worst years of Simmons's life. He and his brother were put on trial for the murder of Cross and mass news histeria insued.

The trials that followed are the main focus of the documentary. You watch enthralled as the film chronicles the trial in great detail including amazingly moving and intense interviews from Simmons, guards, attorneys and other inmates.

You can't help but feel for this man as he struggles to talk about the trial, his brothers suicide and the two years he spent in isolation while being put on trial facing the death penalty. All of this for a crime he did not commit.

The structure of the events presented in this film is somewhat out of order and hard to follow in the beginning. That said, it was quite easily forgotten as one is immersed completely in the life of Simmons. His hardships, his trials and finally his triumphs are more than moving, they are inspiring. To have lived the life he did and been able to break free and become a good person with a wife and kids as well as love life is truly an amazing feat.

"I prayed every day to my creator and I prayed for four things: strength, wisdom, courage and understanding," said Simmons while discussing how he got through two years of solitary confinement.

The amount of publicity and news shown from the time of Simmons's trial is astounding especially considering how not many people questioned from that time remember it.

True stories are the most important kind when it comes to impacting the present society. It is truly an amazing thing when one learns about a new and astonishing bit of history that would otherwise

never be known to you.

"I made this movie because this story needed to be told," said Simmons. "I was finally ready to tell it."

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