LAST DAY OF

FREEDOM

After turning his brother in for murder, a man confronts the horror of untreated PTSD, racism and the death penalty

‘I supported the death penalty… And then one day it came knocking on my door.’

To many, Manny Babbitt’s murder of an elderly woman during a break-in in 1980 was an act of unconscionable depravity. But to Bill Babbitt, who’d seen the progression of his brother’s deterioration following a childhood car accident, two tours of duty in Vietnam and ensuing periods of homelessness, the crime was not carried out by a force of evil, but by a severely mentally ill man whose brain had been ravaged by bad luck and glaring institutional failures.

In Last Day of Freedom, Bill recalls in heartbreaking detail how his brother became so deeply tortured, and how his choice to turn Manny in for murder ultimately led to a controversial, contested and disturbingly politicised death penalty. Vividly and evocatively animated, Last Day of Freedom has won numerous awards for its poignant storytelling, including a Jury Award for Best Short at this year’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in North Carolina.

For more on how PTSD affects soldiers, read Kevin Sites’s essay ‘The Unforgiven’, on the difficult burden soldiers carry when they return home from duty, and watch War Dogs, on a unique, effective rehabilitation programme that partners PTSD-stricken US war veterans with service dogs.

Director: Dee Hibbert-Jones, Nomi Talisman

Producer: Dee Hibbert-Jones, Nomi Talisman

Editor: Dee Hibbert-Jones, Nomi Talisman

Original music: Fred Frith

Animator: Tony Coleman, Nicole Chu, Olivia Healy-Mirkovich, Teresa Richardson

Story Advisor: Elizabeth Finlayson

Website: www.lastdayoffreedom.net