DailyHeights

Here’s one for the next 77th Precinct Community Council meeting.

CBS 2 INVESTIGATES: "Seith Mann says he didn’t commit a crime and was walking in front of his own house when four plain-clothed officers stopped him … ‘The
officer that was behind me. He pulls out a gun and holds it up like
this (hold hand over his head) and he’s like "This is your gun! This is
your gun!" and I thought they were going to plant this gun on me,’ says
Mann."

"Seith Mann, an award winning film producer, had no gun
and no criminal record. He was walking home when police demanded to
search him … ‘I think they targeted me because I’m black.  There is nothing I was doing that was remotely suspicious,’ says Mann."

dailyheights INVESTIGATES:

Remarkably, the ambiguity of the "This is your gun!" incident parallels one of Mann’s favorite themes: "I like situations that are morally ambiguous," FilmMaker Magazine quotes him as saying. Mann, born 1973, won Best Short Film at the 2003 First Run Film Festival for five deep breaths (original score by Jason Moran).The film also won 1st prize, Graduate Division, NYU Tisch School Top Student Films, 2003. The film was also presented at Cannes in 2003. Here’s his filmography on the Festival de Cannes website.

And here’s FilmMaker’s synopsis of five deep breaths: "Although it’s set at an all-black college, (the film) evokes the suspense and tension of a classic western.
When a campus girl is violated, her brother and his friends form a
posse to avenge her honor – a mission that, with shades of Unforgiven,
upends their own notions of masculinity."

Other film credits to Seith Mann’s name include Too Close to the Darkside (1995), Mineral Springs (1996), Well (1997) and The Apology (1999). Seith Mann was also film editor on Kiss It Up To God, a film presented at Festival De Cannes in 2000. Note: not Sieth. Seith.