Independent Lens "The Force"

Pictured: OPD Chief Sean Whent

Credit: Courtesy of Peter Nicks

At a powder keg moment in American policing, The Force presents a mesmerizing cinema vérité look deep inside the long-troubled Oakland Police Department as it struggles to confront federal demands for reform, a popular uprising following events in Ferguson, Missouri, and an explosive sex scandal. Produced and directed by Peter Nicks, The Force premieres on Independent Lens Monday, January 22, 2018 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

Winner of the Documentary Directing Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker Nicks embedded with the department over the course of two years to follow OPD’s serial efforts to recast itself. The film spotlights the new chief, hailed as a reformer, who is brought in to affect reform at the very moment the Black Lives Matter movement emerges to demand police accountability and racial justice both in Oakland and across the nation.