''I Am Evidence'' is a 2017 American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film, directed by Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir. It focuses on an investigation into thousands upon thousands of

rape kits A rape kit or rape test kit is a package of items used by medical, police or other personnel for gathering and preserving physical evidence following an instance or allegation of sexual assault. The evidence collected from the victim can aid the ...

sitting in storage in various police departments being untested.

Mariska Hargitay Mariska Magdolna Hargitay Mariska says her own first name and the name of her father; the interviewer, James Lipton, also says her full name near the start of the show. (; born January 23, 1964) is an American actress, producer, and philanthrop ...

served as a producer on the film. It had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

on April 24, 2017. It was released on April 16, 2018, by

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

. The film won the

News & Documentary Emmy Award The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, or News & Documentary Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Scien ...

for Best Documentary.

Synopsis

The film follows an investigation into the thousands of untested

sitting in storage in various police departments. Each of those untested kits contain crucial evidence without which cases remain unresolved. The film also follows four women, Helena, Amberly, Ericka, and Danielle, whose kits went untested. Kym Worthy and

appear in the film as they fight for change.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on April 24, 2017. It also screened at

AFI Docs The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival was an American international film festival. Created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel, it was held annually in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C., fro ...

on June 15, 2017. It was released on April 16, 2018, by

Reception

''I Am Evidence'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 100% approval rating on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 14 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 8.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Eye-opening and deeply disturbing, I Am Evidence sifts through an egregious amount of evidence to craft a powerful documentary about survivors and a very broken system."

References

External links

* * * {{Rotten Tomatoes, i_am_evidence 2017 films 2017 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about violence against women Rape in the United States HBO documentary films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films News & Documentary Emmy Award–winning programs English-language documentary films