Past Festivals
2020 Film Festival
Take a look at all of the films from the 2020 Festival.
Screening: September 21, 2020 5:30 pm
Running Time: 24 minutes
Meet 16 exonerees, a diverse group brought together by a common experience, a unique family to whom no one chooses to belong. They bare their souls, forever changed by the degradation they suffered. The Gathering tells the story of Witness to Innocence, the largest organization of death row exonerees in the country.
Monday, September 21st Schedule (PDT)
5:30 p.m. | Welcome
5:40 p.m. | Short Film
Hidden Lives
5:45 p.m. | Short Film
The Trouble with Long Prison Terms
by Justice Policy Institute, Open Society Foundations, BRAVE NEW FILMS
5:50 p.m. | Screening
The Gathering
6:25 p.m. | Performance
Aloe Blacc
6:30 p.m. | Panel
7:15 p.m. | Encore Screening
The Gathering
Screening: September 20, 2020 4:45 pm
Running Time: 92 minutes
Aggie is a feature-length documentary that explores the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist Agnes “Aggie” Gund, who devoted $100 million from the sale of Roy Lichtenstein’s Masterpiece to found the Art for Justice Fund to address mass incarceration in the United States.
Sunday, September 20th Schedule (PDT)
4:30 p.m. | Welcome
4:40 p.m. | Short Films
Hidden Lives
4:45 p.m. | Screening
Aggie
6:15 p.m. | Panel
6:45 p.m. | Encore Screening
Aggie
Screening: September 19, 2020 4:30 pm
Running Time: 76 minutes
Attorney MiAngel Cody and her team have dedicated their lives helping people serving life sentences thanks to the Three-strikes Law. Their journey took them from prison to The White House, changing not only the lives of the incarcerated men they fight for, but their families and loved ones as well. One of the men they represent, Edward Douglas, was the first man released thanks to The First Step Act in January 2019. Just weeks after his release, Edward was a guest of Senator Cory Booker at The State of The Union Address.
Saturday, September 19th Schedule (PDT)
4:30 p.m. | Welcome
4:40 p.m. | Short Films
Hidden Lives
4:45 p.m. | Screening
The Third Strike
6:00 p.m. | Panel
6:45 p.m. | Encore Screening
The Third Strike
Screening: September 18, 2020 4:30 pm
Running Time: 81 minutes
Told through currently and formerly incarcerated women and their legal teams, Belly of the Beast chronicles the journey of those struggling to expose illegal sterilizations presently occurring in U.S. prisons.
Friday, September 18th Schedule (PDT)
4:30 p.m. | Welcome
4:40 p.m. | Short Films
Hidden Lives
4:45 p.m. | Special Private Screening
Belly of the Beast
6:05 p.m. | Panel
6:50 p.m. | Encore Screening
Belly of the Beast
Screening: September 17, 2020 4:30 pm
Running Time: 79 minutes
Pushout, based on the widely acclaimed book by Monique W. Morris, confronts the ways in which the misunderstanding of Black girlhood has led to excessive punitive discipline which in turn disrupts one of the most important factors in their lives: their education.
Thurs, September 17th Schedule (PDT)
4:30 p.m. | Welcome
4:35 p.m. | Opening remarks
Michelle Alexander and Aloe Blacc
5:00 p.m. | Screening
Pushout
6:20 p.m. | Panel
7:05 p.m. | Encore Screening
Pushout
Speakers & Panelists
Nate Parker
Nate Parker is an award-winning actor, writer, director and producer, who has played lead characters in films including Beyond The Lights, Red Tails, The Secret Life of Bees, Arbitrage, and Pride.
Senator Holly Mitchell
A third-generation native Angeleno, Sen. Holly J. Mitchell is the proud daughter of career public servants and the protégé of community leaders who instilled in her a passion for service. She was the first African American to chair the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee in December 2016.
Talitha LeFlouria
Talitha LeFlouria is the Lisa Smith Discovery Associate Professor in African and African-American Studies at the University of Virginia. She is a scholar of African American history, and the author of Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South.
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Reginald Dwayne Betts is the author of three collections of poetry and a memoir. Felon, his latest collection of poetry, will be published in October 2019 by W.W. Norton. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School.
