Renowned Filmmaker Explores Emotional Child Support in a Powerful New Documentary

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "… This is to our President.  President Obama remarks often … It's …  been two Father's Day years in a row where he admonished fathers, especially African American fathers,  to step up to the plate. Well, I'm an ex-baseball player; almost went pro years ago… so my analogy is: When the fathers step up to the plate, we get a fast ball right between the eyes. …I'm not a teenage Dad, I'm not a Dad who doesn't work, I don't have a criminal past or an anger management problem, yet my little boy is growing up without his father."

The above quote comes from the trailer for filmmaker Janks Morton's powerful new film, Guilty Until Proven Innocent (GUPI).

In his unique documentary style, the thought provoking questions posed by Morton will shock and move viewers when they see how fathers really feel about their children and the courts.

Says American Coalition for Fathers and Children (www.ACFC.org) Executive Director, Michael McCormick, "In his June 20, 2011 People Magazine interview President Obama states: '…I have learned something over the years about what children need most from their parents.  They need our time, measured not only in the number of hours we spend with them each day, but what we do with those hours.'"

"Yet millions of America's fathers, and tens of millions of children, are right where the family court orders them to be, out of each other's lives.  Dads are then unfairly blamed for being 'absent.' 'Standard Visitation' means over 1/3 of America's children spend an average of four days a month with their Dad.   The fortunate kids also receive some holidays and a couple of weeks in the summer.  The system is cruel to children and their fathers.  Separating children and fathers is unnecessary and correctable," adds McCormick.

Taxpayers foot an enormous bill for this failed system.  Society is exploring solutions for high rates of broken and never-formed families, high rates of incarceration, and the financial and human costs of family breakdown.  GUPI shines as a beacon of hope for those parents and children caught up in the nightmare world of family court and child support agencies.  It also serves as a guidepost for policymakers.

For tens of millions children, and their fathers, a national dialogue on the most pressing issue our society faces today can't come soon enough.

For media inquiries, booking interviews or more information contact Jane Spies at [email protected] or (202) 330-3248.

See a film trailer and order the DVD at: www.gupifilm.com

SOURCE American Coalition for Fathers and Children