Red Planet Boxing

🎬 Documentary List
⚠️ Side A — The System Is Overwhelmed (CPS Under Pressure)
1. The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez (Netflix, 2020) A devastating six-part series about an 8-year-old boy murdered by his mother and her boyfriend despite repeated CPS contact. It exposes systemic failures including overloaded caseworkers managing within a larger system that also brought in third-party companies and outside contractors, as well as a culture of silence permeating child and family services departments. Time (https://time.com/5790549/gabriel-fernandez-netflix-documentary/)
2. Failure to Protect: The Taking of Logan Marr + The Caseworker Files (PBS Frontline) A two-part Frontline investigation. The Caseworker Files takes viewers inside a state’s Department of Human Services, where a small group of overburdened caseworkers face heartbreaking domestic tragedies and make difficult choices every day. It asks the core question: what is the right balance between saving a child and ripping apart a family? PBSPBS (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/fostercare/etc/press.html)
3. Foster (HBO, 2018) An HBO documentary set in Los Angeles. The film addresses impossibly high caseloads, not enough caseworkers, and insufficient funding — while also raising pointed questions about racial disparities in who the system targets. Medium (https://medium.com/latagia-copeland-tyronces-tagi-s-world/what-the-new-hbo-documentary-foster-glosses-over-about-the-child-welfare-system-6e5c5d737c00)
4. Tough Love (PBS POV) A compassionate inside look at the child welfare system that shows the remarkable discretion and power that judges have in defining what makes a parent — and a family. It illustrates the disparity between various state systems and bears witness to the often-overlooked and unappreciated role that social workers, lawyers, and parent advocates play as cases drag on for years. POV (https://www.archive.pov.org/toughlove/film-description)