Pervert Park
Sundance Film Festival
Directors: Frida and Lasse Barkfors

Florida Justice Transition is an adults-only trailer-home community—that’s because it’s a space designed for previously convicted sex offenders reintegrating into society, post-incarceration. Pervert Park traces the stories of a handful of people who live here and, according to Florida law, cannot take up residence within 1,000 feet of communal spaces where children normally congregate because of these offenses. Amid the serious circumstances for this group’s relegation to this space, Pervert Park reveals these individuals’ respective, harrowing pasts, which largely illuminates sociological/psychological factors that fermented their crimes. William Fuery, for instance, dually experienced physical, emotional and psychological abuse from his parents and sexual abuse from his female babysitter. After trauma and strife throughout his life, a subconsciously ingrained fetish from his abusive upbringing manifested itself between him and a minor, and Fuery now looks back at the culmination of his mistake with a (too late) social-anthropological lens. Tracy Hutchinson, similarly, was sexually abused by her father and did so unto her son. Contrastingly, Patrick Naughton—who raped a young girl—comes across as less of a product of a caustic environment and more of a case of severe self-esteem issues, evinced by his confession of previous anger toward women after a series of relationships that went awry. Directors Frida and Lasse Barkfors laudably balance the graveness of this topic with humanizing the subjects of this documentary, who lament their offenses and solely blame themselves. Each Florida Justice Transition dweller’s story varies from the other to elucidate the diversity of sex offenders. Pervert Park effectively portrays their circumstances and the complexity of this issue with these portraits. –Alexander Ortega

Screening Times:
Time: Monday, Jan. 26 @ 6 p.m. Venue: Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City
Time: Wednesday, Jan. 28 @ 5:30 p.m. Venue: Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Time: Thursday, Jan. 29 @ 10 a.m. Venue: Holiday Village Cinema 4, Park City
Time: Saturday, Jan. 31 @ 4 p.m. Venue: Redstone Cinema 2, Park City