Licensed to Kill

By Arthur Dong
Premiered: June 23, 1998

What drives a man to kill? Winner of two top awards at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker Arthur Dong goes inside prison to probe the minds and souls of men whose attitudes toward homosexuality have led them to murder. Hailed as "superb" by Rolling Stone and called a "chilling look at the real face of evil" by the Los Angeles Times, this hour-long, broadcast length version of the film offers a provocative and disturbingly candid exploration of the motivations behind a plague of violence that is sweeping our nation.

Visit the filmmaker's website to watch streaming video clips and get more information about this film.

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Transcript:

ARTHUR DONG: I purposely went to see the men who we think of as normal -- who we see walking down the streets everyday. Who are our neighbors. Who could be a Seven-Eleven manager, who could be a sergeant in the army, who could be your cousin, or your father, or your nephew or son. And I did this because I wanted to show how normal this type of behavior was. And I put quotes around that word "normal." And I wanted to show how common it was, that it's nothing that we can just shut away and say, "Oh, that's not us." That would have been too easy... People may not be aware of the consequences of this type of behavior, as subtle as that may be, as innocent as it may be. And I hope this film sharpens that awareness just a little bit.

PRESS RELEASE (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Family Fundamentals
By Arthur Dong

What happens when conservative Christian families have children who are homosexual? "Family Fundamentals" goes to the heart of today's debate over homosexuality, where the personal is inextricably — and dramatically — bound up in the political. (2003)