“Last Day of Freedom,” a 32-minute film by artists Nomi Talisman and Dee Hibbert-Jones of San Francisco, has made the cut as a finalist for an Academy Award for best short documentary subject.
The animated film tells the story of Bill Babbitt, who struggles with his guilt over having told police about his brother Manny, a Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and who Babbitt suspected of committing murder. Manny Babbitt was executed at San Quentin in 1999.
Talisman grew up in Israel and studied at Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, and later Oakland’s Mills College, where she earned an MFA. She and Hibbert-Jones have been outspoken opponents of the death penalty, a subject “Last Day of Freedom” explores in depth.
The Academy Awards will be telecast live on Sunday, Feb. 28 on ABC.