Based on true events in the midst of the 2000 election, AMERICAN VIOLET tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts, a 24 year-old African American single mother of four young girls living in a small Texas town who is barely making ends meet on a waitressâ salary and government subsidies. Durring a huge drug bust, she is indicted based on the uncorroborated word of a single and dubious police informant facing his own drug charges, Dee soon discovers she has been charged as a drug dealer. Even though Dee has no prior drug record and no drugs were found on her in the raid or any subsequent searches, she is offered a hellish choice: plead guilty and go home as a convicted felon or remain in prison and fight the charges thus, jeopardizing her custody and risking a long prison sentence. Despite the urgings of her mother (Academy Awardî nominee Alfre Woodard), and with her freedom and the custody of her children at stake, she chooses to fight the district attorney and the unyielding criminal justice system he represents. Joined in an unlikely alliance with an ACLU attorney (Tim Blake Nelson) and former local narcotics officer (Will Patton), Dee risks everything in a battle that forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. AMERICAN VIOLET also stars Emmy Awardî winner Charles S. Dutton and Xzibit.
