Miami Noir: The Arthur E. Teele Story

Plot Summary

Miami's world of crime and injustice has long been a subject of fictional film and television. The story of Miami City Commissioner, Arthur E. Teele proves that fact is stranger than fiction. In the early 1980s, a young, bright, black politician moved to Miami from Washington, D.C. after directing $220 million into Miami's transportation system as head of the Urban Mass Transit Administration under the Reagan administration. From the late 1980s until 2004, Arthur E. Teele, Jr. flourished in Miami as a county and city commissioner where he strived to improve the living conditions for impoverished black communities. The media's scrutiny of misappropriation of government funds and contracts led to an under-cover investigation of Teele initiated by the Florida State Attorney. The drama began to unfold when Teele nearly ran an under-cover detective off the road for following his wife. This led to a conviction for threatening a public servant. State and federal charges of fraud and money laundering brought additional arrests for Teele. With mounting debt, bad press, allegations of soliciting a transvestite prostitute, and the development of his criminal charges, Arthur Teele committed suicide in the lobby of The Miami Herald newspaper building on July 27, 2005. This documentary combines interviews with stylized dramatizations to recount one of Miami's most notorious tragedies. The story examines the duality of Teele: how a man holding political clout can seemingly help a broken community yet use that same stature to allegedly succumb to the pressures of debt and personal gain. The film explores the black community's outcries, the media's influence, journalistic ethics, and the nature of the State Attorney’s investigation. Finally, the documentary illustrates the dramatic chain of events that brought a man to take his own life. This film was directed by University of Miami alumni Josh Miller and Sam Rega with special guest director, Jorge Valdes-Iga.