My mom and aunt came to Gainesville for graduation a couple days earlier than the rest of the family to accompany me to end-of-the-year events. Tonight was “Jessie’s Dad,” a documentary by my editor, Boaz Dvir.

We joined professors, students, family, friends and those in the documentary in the Reitz cinema for its premiere. Dvir spent a year and half documenting the travels of Mark Lunsford, father of 9-year-old Jessie, who was raped and buried alive – by the neighbor across the street. Lunsford advocates “Jessie’s Law,” which gives stricter sentencing to child sex offenders.

After shedding several tears, I couldn’t help but join the standing ovation Dvir received at the end. It was such a well-done documentary. At the after party, I told Dvir that with the beautifully honest words Lunsford spoke, this story couldn’t have been told any other way. Dvir spent so much time with the family that he became a part of them and shot 130 hours of video – now that’s immersion reporting. That’s what I want to do.

Click here to read about the documentary in The Alligator.

Here’s another good article from MSNBC about tonight: “Slain Girl’s Dad To Preview Documentary: ‘Jessie’s Dad.’” (Note: the grandmother did end up coming tonight.)

Also, I loved that Dvir introduced me to his mom as the one who blogs. Yes, I confessed to her, I’m a blogger.