Film Schedule
This Year’s Lineup
This year’s films dive into the life of the incarcerated, both during prison and after release.
Producers: Frank Carlson & Mike Fritz PBS NewsHour’s documentary, “Searching for Justice: Life After Lockup,” focuses on the challenges people who have spent years behind bars encounter after release — from reconnecting with family, to finding work and housing, to staying out of prison or jail. The special hosted by NewsHour’s chief correspondent, Amna Nawaz, features the struggles and successes of four formerly incarcerated individuals as they navigate their return to society. Frank Carlson is an award-winning producer at the PBS NewsHour, where for over a decade he’s covered national and international stories. More recently, he’s focused on criminal justice reform and issues like prison abuse, the failures of the public defense system, and the many collateral consequences of criminal convictions on things like housing, employment, and family reunification. He lives in New Mexico with his wife, Sarah. Mike Fritz is a video journalist for the PBS NewsHour. He was part of the NewsHour team that was awarded a Peabody Award for its coverage of the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Prior to joining PBS in 2009, he worked for the Associated Press and NBC News. Over the last few years, his reporting has focused on the challenges men and women face re-entering society after incarceration. Fritz lives with his wife, Erin, and their dog Banjo in Washington D.C.
Screening: October 30, 2022 2:15 pm
Running Time: 85 Minutes
Art & Krimes by Krimes is a story of confinement and freedom, of loss and creation. While locked-up for six years in federal prison, artist Jesse Krimes secretly creates monumental works of art—including an astonishing 40-foot mural made with prison bed sheets, hair gel, and newspaper. He smuggles out each panel piece-by-piece with the help of fellow artists, only seeing the mural in totality upon coming home. As Jesse’s work captures the art world’s attention, he struggles to adjust to life outside, living with the threat that any misstep will trigger a life sentence.
Screening: October 29, 2022 11:30 am
Running Time: 33 minutes
When a kind-hearted prison officer (Oscar Isaac) is transferred to the letter room, he soon gets involved in an inmate’s personal affairs…
Screening: October 29, 2022 11:30 am
Running Time: 33 Minutes
Damon Cooke is an inmate with a life sentence at Solano State Prison for an attempted murder conviction. This is a story about the path that led him there, what he’s done in his thirty years of incarceration, and his fight for parole in a criminal justice system that will go to great lengths to keep inmates inside.
Screening: October 29, 2022 11:30 am
Running Time: 15 Minutes
When he was 16, Roberto Luca was sentenced to life in prison. 30 years later, Roberto is released after reforming from his violent past. Searching for redemption, Roberto helps other released lifers (people who have been sentenced to life in prison) change their lives and re-enter society.
Screening: October 29, 2022 11:30 am
Running Time: 23 Minutes
A group of men, formerly incarcerated together at Folsom Prison, share their most personal insights about practicing centering prayer while serving time. The film, also featuring men currently at Folsom, is an intimate testament to inner transformation.
Screening: October 29, 2022 1:30 pm
Running Time: 15 Minutes
After the racially charged shooting of an unarmed teenager, an officer of color must decide whether to stand on the side of the law or seek justice for his community.
Screening: October 29, 2022 1:30 pm
Running Time: 44 Minutes
Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight To Vote (2022) by Robert Greenwald is a powerful documentary about the growing threat of voter suppression and election sabotage to our 2022 midterm elections. In 2021, 19 states passed 34 new voter laws following the Big Lie of the 2020 election. The film focuses on this recent wave of voter suppression and subversion laws being enacted in states, and how the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp provides a case study for understanding today’s voter suppression laws across the country.
Screening: October 30, 2022 11:30 am
Running Time: 19 Minutes
Redemption + Restoration is an insightful mini-documentary that features the voices and stories of justice impacted Black community members from the Inland Empire area of Southern California. Redemption + Restoration highlights their transformative journey along the pathway to gainful employment, impactful community involvement, redemption and restoration.
Screening: October 30, 2022 11:30 am
Running Time: 8 Minutes
THE CIRCLE was written by nine men during a 10-week theatre workshop held on the A yard at the California State Prison in Los Angeles County. When all California prisons shut down during the middle of the workshop due to COVID-19, the men were unable to perform their work in front of a live audience. Instead, five actors from Project Re/Frame Ensemble, a theatrical group of formerly incarcerated individuals bring their words alive in this visual performance piece filmed on-location and on Zoom.
Screening: October 30, 2022 11:30 am
Running Time: 16 Minutes
Fighting for her last connection in a system designed to isolate her, pregnant Aria applies to an in-prison nursery program. She is determined to keep her baby close and turn her life around; however when Aria goes into labor she faces her biggest challenge yet. This character-driven short is based on a true story.
Screening: October 30, 2022 11:30 am
Running Time: 17 Minutes
A formerly incarcerated woman turned activist fights to legally end the shackling of incarcerated pregnant people in Georgia.
Screening: October 30, 2022 2:15 pm
Running Time: 85 Minutes
A Woman on the Outside is a tender portrait of one family striving to love in the face of a system built to break them.
Screening: October 30, 2022 2:15 pm
Running Time: 10 Minutes
Cambodian American refugee Chanthon Bun was convicted of second-degree robbery at 19 and lost legal protection to live in the U.S. Experiencing freedom after two decades, he is now threatened by the potential of deportation.
Screening: October 30, 2022 2:15 pm
Running Time: 40 Minutes
Each year, over 600,000 people return from jail or prison to our communities, where they face countless barriers to employment, housing, and reintegration. The film explores the challenges of reentry and the role communities can play in reducing these barriers. Viewers will hear from four storytellers–George, Shaquan, Sing and Armando–who share portions of their life stories, illuminating the common threads that run through the experiences of many of the over two million people incarcerated in the U.S.
