Darius Clarke Monroe tells his life-story in his self-directed documentary 'Evolution of a criminal'.It deals with mostly his choice as a teenager to alongside his friends to rob a bank, how it affected him personally, his 2 friends who were there with him, his family and even some of his victims.It's a honest movie and it's well-made in pretty much all aspects, the atmospheric music is close to perfect for the scenes they are in and it has some truly emotional scenes, especially towards the end.There is a segment which Darrius sets out to interview his victims which might be a bit problematic as they are probably gonna struggle opening up to him.Heck it would be hard enough to open up as a man to any random man about a traumatic event let alone someone who was the cause of it but it works okay for the morepart, and I suppose it was more about him saying he's sorry than anything else.All in all a solid documentary well worth seeing.

This was a very well-done autobiographical doc of how a young black man made decisions to rob a bank with 2 friends. He had since served his prison sentence, and joined NYU film school, and this is, I believe, his first serious film. The documentary is exceptionally well-filmed and subtle, and well-crafted throughout, using both interviews with his real-life friends and family (talking to him, the interviewer), as well as using actors to reenact scenes. The only flaw was that the documentary seemed about 20 minutes too long, and it did not really address the Elephant in the Room: if Darius felt culpable, as this film shows, but his family obviously did not feel he was (as the interviews proved), then where's the reconciliation there? In fact, the interviews with the mother, father and other family members seemed to reveal a characteristic of this family, and perhaps, many families like them: when Darius came home with the $140 grand, his mother and father did not scold him and drag him to the police, or even try to give back the money to the bank (no harm, no foul), but spent the money, and shielded their son. This, while understandable at the very first, eventually sends a terrible message, and perhaps indicative of what is wrong with many families in black communities. They should have marched their son to the police station, giving back the money, to minimize the penalty (since it came as no big surprise to anyone but Darius that they were all caught anyway). In fact, I was watching closely to see if anyone at all blamed themselves and took responsibility for their actions. The only 2 people who seemed to acknowledge that taking what's not theirs was wrong were Darius and one of his female cousins. The rest were just upset that Darius got into trouble and was caught. The fact that the family of 5 was struggling, even though the parents were working 2-3 jobs, was compelling. But it made me also wonder what sort of people have 2, 3 kids and yet assume they will have enough money to take care of them, without the requisite incomes? Apparently, this family did. But Darius did not mention going hungry, or going to humiliating food bank lines or anything. The only thing that seemed to tip this family (or Darius at least) over the edge was a burglary. Also, the parents bringing their children into their money squabbles certainly had a negative effect on young Darius. So although I felt the larger sociological issue of poverty in working black families should be addressed, and appreciated that, I was also pretty repelled by Darius's parents' response and actions after the loot was stolen, as if the money was theirs to spend. These seemingly nice parents obviously had poor morals that were transmitted to their son, since they in fact merely spent the money that wasn't theirs (excusing it as "just paying bills", including a $1000 phone bill for a friend). I wondered whether many black families feel this way--that the system is just rigged, so all they need is a trigger or snap (such as a burglary) to turn the entire family into criminals and accomplices. The mother confessed that she never even thought of turning her son in at all. That speaks volumes. It's her son, yes, but when family is more important than morality and law, then how are they morally different than all the rich white families whom people claim oppress others for their benefit? After all, "family comes first". If 1 in 3 black males are incarcerated, you cannot have this mentality in the black community; each child must be reared thinking that it is absolutely unacceptable to commit crime, under any circumstance. But this film shows that this family at least, certainly did not feel that way at all. Anyway, the documentary made me think about the culture of entitlement and victimhood, which seemed clear as day in this doc.That being said, I was especially impressed by Darius's documentary, which was penetrating and sensitive, as seems the subject. I wish him the best; he seems to have a real intelligence for film-making.

I saw this doc. awhile back, and it, and this story, really impressed me. The filmmaker tells his story of robbing a bank at age 17 with his two buddies. It seems that his family was strapped for cash, so he's like- you know what, let's rob a bank! And they may have gotten away with it too, except his one pal couldn't keep his trap shut, and bragged about it all over school- PLUS was spending cash like cray cray. Finally, the cops arrested him (the filmmaker), and he got some time in the pen.He did an amazing thing though- he turned his life around- went to film school in NYC, and made this movie. It was interesting afterwards, when his film professors and classmates were interviewed- they were like, OK, I had NO IDEA this guy was a felon-??!! In fact, they almost took it a little as deceit. And he was like, well, would YOU lend your film equipment out to someone who robbed a bank just a few years earlier-?? LOL Well, anyhoo, I'd def. give this little doc. a solid recommend. And kids...if you're gonna rob a bank...DON'T go braggin your a** off at school about it the next day!!?? ;)

Evolution of a Criminal was extremely enthusiastically received in its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. The young director, Darius Clarke Monroe, tells his own story of how a 16-year-old black teenager from a struggling working class family in Houston became robbed a bank to help out his family with its financial struggles. He went to prison for a few years and has since graduated from college and attended NYU's Graduate Film program. In the film, Darius interviews with his family, accomplices, victims at the bank (who were not physically harmed) and the prosecutor to tell the story of what happened to him. He combines the interviews with reenactments of the bank robbery and events around it. The story provides the audience with a powerful portrait of how a bright young man feels compelled to commit a crime to help out his family. We often forget that crime is often motivated by economic struggles and not some deep-seated character flaw.This film also shows that it is possible to turn one's life around. The most powerful message of this film is that ex-convicts can be rehabilitated and become law-abiding citizens as Darius has. Those folks – especially here in Texas – who want to lock-up criminals and throw away the keys need to see Darius's story. I hope that this film is widely-distributed so that people can learn from Darius's experiences.