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For the first time ever, Cucalorus and Working Films are inviting the public to experience the 2025 Works-in-Progress Lab—an immersive residency that champions independent filmmakers telling powerful stories of social justice. Taking place April 22-29, 2025, at Jengo’s Playhouse in downtown Wilmington, the Lab provides hands-on guidance in audience engagement and accountable storytelling. Each evening, audiences will get an exclusive first look at one of five powerful works-in-progress, with filmmakers and mentors joining in person to share insights and spark conversation. The gatherings begin at 6:30pm -- Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Monday's screening will begin at 3:00pm. Filmmakers in this year’s cohort will refine their outreach strategies, ensuring their documentaries foster meaningful impact. The program is part of an ongoing effort to empower filmmakers with the tools to connect their stories with communities and drive change. Five filmmaking teams will receive extensive community feedback during a series of public screenings, workshops, and one-on-one consultations with mentors Jackie Olive, Byron Hurt, Akili Davis and Natalie Bullock Brown. Designed to support independent social justice filmmakers, the Lab focuses on audience engagement and accountable storytelling, equipping participants with the tools to develop impactful outreach strategies for their documentaries. “Witnessing the relationships grow within the Lab between the cohort throughout the week is powerful and creates an environment of trust and support with aligned filmmakers, mentors and community members,” mentioned  Works-in-Progress Lab organizer Stephanie Avery. The following films have been selected for the 2025 WiP Lab:

• Women Who Ride, directed by Jessica Jones, follows Tish Edwards, founder of Oakland’s first Black women’s motorcycle club, as she balances leadership, caregiving, and her passion for riding.

 

• Afromystic, directed by Seyi Adebanjo, is a lyrical documentary exploring the spiritual journeys of LGBTQ+ Yoruba practitioners across Nigeria, Brazil, and the U.S. Through ritual, storytelling, and performance, the film challenges colonial erasure, highlighting Queer resilience within indigenous traditions.

 

• Of the Soil, directed by Alexis Bell, follows farmer and activist Kendrick Ransome, as he fights for Black food sovereignty, reclaiming land, mentoring youth, and advocating for sustainable agriculture to build a healthier future.

 

• Allensworth: The Town that Refuses to Die, directed by Daryl Jones, follows Black and Latine residents that are fighting climate change and hardship with resilience, preserving a legacy of survival and community.

• The Co-op: The Kids of Dorie Miller, directed by Paulina Davis, follows her family's history at NYC’s pioneering unsegregated housing co-op, The Dorie Miller Co-op, exploring its legacy of community and resistance amid today’s affordable housing crisis.

The Works-in-Progress Lab is designed and led by Working Films, a Wilmington-based nonprofit organization that is nationally recognized for its work using documentaries as a resource to inform and involve communities in addressing social and environmental issues that impact their lives. Interviews with any of the filmmakers can be arranged by request. Please contact Stephanie Avery at [email protected] to schedule or visit jengos.eventive.org/schedule for detailed information about each screening.

Join Working Films and some of your favorite storytellers and changemakers for a one-of-a-kind evening in San Francisco. Enjoy delicious appetizers, drinks, and the company of fellow filmmakers, artists, and changemakers as we come together to celebrate 25 years of documentary impact and set our sights on the future. This inspiring gathering will feature co-hosts and Working Films’ board members, Adamu Chan and Anayansi Prado, along with a special performance from a local poet and artist. Let’s come together to honor this milestone, build community, and continue using stories to inspire action and create change. All proceeds will fund Working Films’ efforts connecting filmmakers and changemakers to tackle the issues of our time. Purchase tickets here. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES  Join us in supporting Working Films’ mission to advance social and environmental justice through documentary storytelling. Your sponsorship will benefit the filmmakers, community organizers, and audiences across the country that Working Films serves. From production grants for films on Democracy, to growing the climate justice movement in rural areas via solar powered film series, your donation will help us make a difference in 2025 and set the stage for the next 25 years. Your sponsorship shows that your organization aligns with our belief in the power of story to make an impact, our commitment to ground up social change, and the importance of accountability to communities most impacted by injustice as we work to build a new world together. Please contact Anna Lee, Working Films' Director of Learning and Development, with questions about sponsorship or tickets. (alee [at] workingfilms [dot] org) [video width="1366" height="768" mp4="https://workingfilms.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/WF-25-Shorten.mp4" loop="true" autoplay="true"][/video]

Working Films and our partners at Democracy 2076, Political Research Associates, and Southern Vision Alliance are looking for story-driven short films that will illuminate the growing dangers of fascism and authoritarianism, fostering a shared understanding of the challenges we face and how to push back. Together, through the Docs in Action program, we will fund and tour films to support organizers who are resisting authoritarianism and building democratic possibility throughout the U.S. and beyond. While recent examples of rising fascism—such as the erosion of democratic norms in the U.S., the rise of authoritarian regimes in Europe and South America, and the global surge in far-right extremism—underscore the urgency of these threats, they have been steadily growing and will continue to grow without deliberate and collective action. To address these challenges, we must expose the dangers they pose and highlight stories of resistance. Building the future we all deserve, requires breaking out of silos and learning from what’s worked—locally and globally, historically and today. We need to understand the roots of fascism and authoritarianism, how we got here and what we truly mean by democracy. This isn’t just about protecting democracy but reclaiming and reimagining it as a radical project, one that resists the status quo and embraces the possibilities of a just, multiracial, feminist future. Through these stories, we can foster solidarity and demonstrate how collective care and action can counter the growing dangers we face. More than just a call to defense, these films will inspire audiences to envision a future rooted in hope and equip them with the tools to take action and reimagine a society where the radical possibilities of a just and inclusive democracy—one that uplifts everyone and embodies justice—can finally take shape. The 2025 Docs in Action program has two tracks for filmmakers:

1. Apply for up to $30,000 in funding for short documentary films. Only works-in-progress, short documentaries are eligible to apply for funding.
2. Submit your completed documentary or narrative film to be included in a compilation that will be used to support organizing.

We're looking for artful films that are visually compelling and bring us into the issues through powerful human stories. More information and directions for how to apply can be found below. If you have a film that can be described in one or more of the following ways, please apply.

Now in its seventh year, Working Films’ Impact Kickstart program has resourced filmmakers to pursue strategic plans for impact and engage audiences, partners, and supporters in meaningful ways. This year, we will be providing in-kind partnership and strategy development, expert 1:1 mentorship, and $60,000 of impact campaign funding to each awardee. “The two films selected for Impact Kickstart this year truly center community and care,” says Gerry Leonard, Director of Filmmaker Services and Impact. “From skill-sharing to trauma healing workshops — Standing Above the Clouds and Traces of Home reflect the transformative and bold ways that film can build power within and for communities, leading to long-term organizing and engagement.” We are thrilled to announce the two films receiving an Impact Kickstart in 2025! Traces of Home by Colette Ghunim (Director), Sara Maamouri (Editor/Producer), Keith Wilson (Executive Producer), Dan Rybicky (Producer), Capella Fahoome (Producer) Flipping through family photo albums, I ask my parents what made them come to the United States from Mexico and Palestine. My mother slowly responds, “We didn’t move to the United States as immigrants looking for a better life. We were running away from something.” For me, this statement is pivotal. Growing up disconnected from my roots, I hadn’t thought much about my parents’ migration stories before. What were they running away from? Over grainy VHS footage of our seemingly typical American family, my brother shares his definition of home. Troubled memories begin to unravel. On Christmas Day, 1997, I open presents, and a letter from “Santa” asks me to promise my mother not to cry anymore. Ramsey recounts that, although our parents loved us, he always felt something was missing. Filmed over five years, Traces of Home is a personal story about my relationship with my family through the lens of intergenerational trauma. Interweaving two international trips to find my parents’ ancestral homes in Mexico and Palestine, extensive family video archives, and intimate conversations with my family, what begins as a desire to connect to my cultural origins turns into an internal quest to heal myself and my family. “Being selected as part of Impact Kickstart is a life-changing opportunity to serve my community through facilitating trauma healing work that is so desperately needed to transform both our inner and outer worlds,” says Colette Ghunim, Director/Producer of Traces of Home. “I am eternally grateful to partner with such a heart-centered, intentional team to strategize our collective liberation together.” Instagram | Website Standing Above the Clouds by Jalena Keane-Lee (Director/Producer), Amber Espinosa-Jones (Producer), Erin Lau (Producer), Diana Diroy (Editor), Aunty Pua (Co-Producer/Protagonist/Cultural Advisor) Standing Above the Clouds is an intimate look at the largest political movement in Hawaiian history and the Indigenous women leaders who have successfully sustained it since 2010. We see the history of the movement to Protect Mauna Kea through archival footage and learn of the detrimental environmental and cultural impacts past telescopes have had on the sacred mountain. At the center of the story are Pua Case and her two daughters Hāwane Rios and Kapulei Flores. They are joined by Mehana Kihoi and Leina’ala Sleightholm who have changed their families’  lives by joining the movement. We follow them through the pandemic as they work to heal from trauma and rely on community. With the fate of the telescope still to be decided, the film shows that victory is in the perseverance of a movement and the intergenerational healing found in sisterhood and cultural practice. “We made Standing Above the Clouds to honor indigenous women activists and help protect sacred places around the world,” says Jalena Keane-Lee, Director/Producer of Standing Above the Clouds. “We are so excited to be collaborating with Working Films on this next phase of our impact campaign!” Instagram | Website   ABOUT IMPACT KICKSTART Impact Kickstart was launched with the understanding that a solid strategy for audience engagement and strong partnerships are critical for a documentary film to make a difference. Filmmakers often lack time to do this work themselves or the expertise and the funds to pay for it. To respond to this challenge, Working Films offers free impact campaign development services and funding to artists whose films hold great promise to shift understanding and catalyze action that addresses some of the most critical issues of our time. Impact Kickstart is made possible with support from the Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Kendeda Fund, and the Perspective Fund.

The Works-in-Progress (WiP) Lab supports social justice documentaries with a focus on Black storytelling. Co-designed and coordinated by Working Films, in partnership with Cucalorus, participating artists receive feedback on their work-in-progress and explore audience engagement strategies through workshops, consultations, and community screenings during a weeklong residency at Cucalorus’ campus. This year’s Lab takes place from April 22- April 29. Now in its sixteenth year, the Works-in-Progress lab was launched in 2008 through a partnership between Working Films and Cucalorus. We will be accepting applications through January 15th, 2025! Program and Application Details Residency Working Films and Cucalorus are teaming up again for the 2025 Works In Progress Lab. Selected filmmakers will come to Wilmington, NC – where Cucalorus and Working Films are based – for a weeklong residency which includes trainings, workshops and community engagement screenings. Participants should plan for arrival on Monday April 21 and departure on April 29. The lab begins on Tuesday, April 22 and runs through Monday April 28. Filmmakers will spend time participating in workshops with the Working Films and Cucalorus teams. They will be joined by experienced documentary filmmaker mentors. Previous mentors include Byron Hurt, Natalie Bullock Brown, Jacqueline Olive, and Lana Garland. We create a tight knit atmosphere of peer support where the facilitators and mentors lead the cohort in giving one another feedback on their work in progress. Using Working Films’ 24 years of experience in creating impact campaigns for documentary films, we also spend time workshopping the distribution and impact strategies for participating films. And finally, during residency week, filmmakers will have an opportunity to screen their work-in-progress footage with organizations and individuals who are working on the issues which their film addresses. These are intimate, closed door screenings. The audiences are change leaders, whose lived experiences and work align with the film content, who can provide valuable feedback for filmmakers as they continue to edit and plan for how their film can make an impact once it’s completed. Filmmakers will also have down time to work on their edit, write, and relax or sight-see in downtown Wilmington and surrounding beaches. Previous cohorts have found the downtime creates the perfect opportunity to build lasting relationships and share experiences & learnings with their peers. Eligibility The Cucalorus WiP lab supports social justice documentaries with a focus on Black storytelling. Films may be shorts, features, or episodic, but must be nonfiction. Films can be at any stage of development, but we find that filmmakers benefit most when they are in the production or post production phase of their project. We will need some sample footage to show at feedback screenings. This could be an assembly, sizzle reel, rough cut, or fine cut. It’s up to the filmmaker to decide what to show. The goal is to have these opportunities for feedback be of benefit to the director wherever they are in their process. What’s Included Working Films and Cucalorus cover the following expenses for each selected director:

• • Round trip transportation to Wilmington, NC for the residency.
  • Housing during the residency.
  • Most meals during the residency.
  • Airport transfer and most local transportation during the residency.
  • Three years of all-access passes to Cucalorus Festival in November.

Working Films strives to make all of our events and programs accessible, including our application processes. To request an accessibility accommodation or adjustment, please email [email protected], or call us at 910-342-9000. Across the US we are seeing stronger and more frequent climate-fueled disasters, exposure to environmental racism, and threats to our democracy. These challenges – all compounded by the breakdown of civil discourse and community relationships – make face to face dialogue critical for building resilience and civic engagement. We also know that changemakers in rural areas and small towns are consistently under-resourced and must exercise everything in their toolbox, and film screenings are a powerful tool for organizers to gather their community and move them to action. Hosting these events is a unique way for organizers to share stories on screen that mirror the environmental problems they’re facing, as well as showcase successful organizing tactics that could be replicated locally. Working Films’ response to this need is Rural Cinema, a program offering training and support to rural organizers to leverage this powerful resource. Now in its sixth year, Rural Cinema is a training institute and community engagement program aimed at supporting leaders from rural areas and small towns across the United States in using film screenings as a resource in their work for environmental justice and protection. In 2025, we will be selecting organizations in six locations that are directly affected by polluting industries or climate disasters, as well as areas transitioning from being economically fueled by extractive energy industries to adopting more sustainable approaches. The program will support participants in holding a community film series that engages their communities and advance their environmental justice goals over the course of one year. These events will create spaces for residents to come together, discuss issues affecting their communities, learn and be inspired by the visual content and one another’s experiences, and generate solutions that address their needs and priorities. Each individual or organization selected to participate will receive virtual trainings, technical assistance, film screening equipment provided by EPIC Outdoor Cinema, including a mobile solar battery to run the equipment, a $2,500 honorarium, and additional monetary support to hold film screenings in their community to support their goals throughout 2025. Six community organizations will be selected through an application process. Applications are due on Thursday January 23rd. The following are key elements of the program, which will begin in February 2025.

APPLY TO RURAL CINEMA 2024

PROGRAM ELEMENTS: Virtual Training Institute We will provide two two-hour virtual training sessions for selected applicants focused on best practices for using documentary film as an organizing, educational, civic engagement, and advocacy tool. These sessions will provide an opportunity for two representatives from each participating community to connect, share ideas, and learn how to effectively use film screenings to drive community action and further their advocacy objectives. In addition to these group sessions, we will also conduct individual, one-on-one training with Working Films’ staff between the virtual gatherings to provide tailored support and guidance. This training will lay the groundwork for extensive ongoing support for each group’s film series. A few examples of training topics include: how to plan a community film series centered around key goals, audiences, and community actions, how to use the film screening equipment, how to work with drive-ins/how to create your own, and how to host in-person events and virtual events. Ongoing Support & Training We will provide ongoing, individualized training and consultation (in the form of regular check-ins) with participating community leaders as they incorporate film screenings into their work over the course of the year-long program. Working Films staff will work with each leader to identify specific goals, select films, and plan its strategic use in multiple public events in their community over the course of 2025. Working Films will provide monetary support for community leaders to use for hard costs like venues, refreshments, screening rights fees, virtual tech support fees, speaking honorariums for filmmakers and other panelists, advertisements, etc. Film Screening Equipment & Solar Equipment We will provide each selected community with a full package of screening equipment that can be used for outdoor or indoor in-person events. This includes an inflatable screen, projector, sound system, and control console provided by Epic Outdoor Cinema. Also, since the goal of these screenings is to take action toward environmental justice solutions, each organization or individual will also receive a solar battery that will help power the film screening equipment. This equipment will permanently stay in each community. Recipients will be able to keep all of this equipment after the Rural Cinema program has ended for further use long into the future. ELIGIBILITY Organizations working in a rural area or small town that can be described in at least one of the ways below, are eligible to apply: –  an area directly affected by polluting industries or climate disasters – an area abandoned by extractive energy industries – An area transitioning from, or trying to transition from, extractive energy industries to more sustainable approaches. COMMITMENT Applicants must commit to assigning two individuals to lead their participation in Rural Cinema. These two individuals must attend each of the two, two-hour virtual training sessions/cohort gatherings (taking place on February 27th and April 3rd), work with Working Films staff in between the full group gatherings for one-on-one training support to develop plans for your series, and participate in the implementation of multiple (4-6) film events throughout 2025. These two individuals will also be the primary liaison with Working Films’ staff as we support the organization in planning and implementing screening events over the course of the year. This does not preclude participation by other individuals/staff members. SELECTION PROCESS Applications will be reviewed by a team of nonprofit and organizing leaders and selections will be made based on the following criteria:

• Alignment of an organization’s mission with the stated focus area of addressing environmental issues in their community.
• An organization’s demonstrated enthusiasm and interest in using film in their work (previous use of film is not a requirement).
• The extent to which an organization has been able to come up with a vision and clear goals for their series, even if it is just a first draft. We know that sometimes overall vision and goals change throughout the course of the trainings.
• Capacity to attend the trainings and devote time to organizing a series in their community throughout 2025.
• The extent to which an organization reflects and/or shows accountability to the communities they organize and work with.

Applicants will be notified as to the outcome of the selection process in February. For a full timeline of the trainings and program, see the FAQ. HOW TO APPLY: To apply, we strongly suggest you first check out this document of frequently asked questions, and then complete our online application using Submittable. You’ll create a quick login so that you can work on your application and have your information saved. Before you get started you can find a preview of the application questions here. If you have any additional questions, join us at a webinar Q&A on Thursday December 12th at 2pm ET. Register for it here! If you can’t attend, we will be recording and embedding it on this page. If you have any additional questions in the meantime, please email [email protected]

REGISTER TO THE RURAL CINEMA 2025 WEBINAR

Race Forward and Working Films are thrilled to announce the 2024 Race Flicks film track of Facing Race: A National Conference, being held in person in St. Louis, Missouri, November 20-22. Race Flicks is a micro-film track during the conference that lifts up critical issues and stories of community organizing for racial justice. This year’s program maintains a focus on accountable and care-centered filmmaking that respects and reflects the people and places featured, and holds great potential to build power among those represented in the stories at hand. The selected films were chosen in large part because of the way they can be used strategically by advocates, organizers, and nonprofits to advance their work for racial justice. The Five Demands is a riveting story about the student strike that changed the face of higher education. In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, an elite public university located right in the heart of Harlem. Through archival footage and modern-day interviews, we follow the students’ struggle against the institutional racism that, for over a century, had shut out people of color from this and other public universities. The Five Demands uncovers the untold story of this explosive student takeover and proves that a handful of ordinary citizens can band together to take action and affect meaningful change. Watch Trailer

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The Cost of Inheritance, Directed by Yoruba Richen, Produced by Lacey Shwartz and Mehret Mandefro, Run time: 55 minutes The Cost of Inheritance explores the complex issue of reparations in the United States and takes a personal approach to understanding our history, systemic injustices, and racial inequities.  We follow descendants of enslavers and the enslaved as they are reckoning with their past and trying to find a just way forward.  Opposing views and challenges to the concept of reparations are also heard in the exposition of our complicated history. The film introduces viewers to those who are working toward common ground, despite their differing perspectives. The protagonists launch conversations,  attempt to reconcile, and take specific actions that aspire to close the racial wealth gap in America. The disparate trajectory of lives, families and communities impacted by structural racism unfolds through archival images of land, labor exploitation and racial violence, set against a backdrop that depicts the pursuit of justice for Japanese internment survivors and survivors of the Holocaust. Watch Trailer

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Bad Press, Directed by Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler, Run time: 98 minutes (An excerpt from the film will be shown during the conference along with info about how to watch the full film) Imagine you lived in a world where your only reliable news source became government propaganda overnight. That’s exactly what happened to the citizens of the Muscogee Nation, the fourth largest Native American tribe, in 2018. Out of 574 federally-recognized tribes, the Muscogee Nation was one of only five to establish a free and independent press - until the tribe’s legislative branch abruptly repealed the landmark Free Press Act in advance of an election. The tribe’s hard-hitting news outlet, Mvskoke Media, would now be subject to direct editorial oversight by the tribal government. One defiant journalist refuses to accept this flagrant act of oppression. As brave as she is blunt, veracious muckraker Angel Ellis charges headfirst into battle against the corrupt faction of the Muscogee National Council. Angel and her allies rally for press freedoms by inciting a voter-supported constitutional amendment, just in time for the start of a new election cycle. Watch Trailer

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Birth from the Earth, Directed by Katy Walker Mejia; Produced by Katy Walker Mejia, Natasha Scully, and Betty Bastidas, Run time: 16 minutes Up against a broken for-profit medical system, home birth midwife and educator Nubia Earth Martin is a visionary leader in the Birth Justice movement working tirelessly to create more opportunities and empower BIPOC mothers and families to safely give birth at home and support the midwives and birth workers who guide them along their sacred journey. We hear so many negative stories and news coverage of how black mothers are dying, and that birth is dangerous and scary. The mothers and families who contributed to the film all had a desire to share a different perspective – one of our fore mothers and great-grandmothers who all successfully brought forth life in a beautiful way, so that we – their descendants, would be able to uplift these stories into the present day. Watch Trailer

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Smile4Kime, Directed by Elena Guzman, Produced by Cybee Bloss, Run time: 26 minutes Smile4Kime is an experimental documentary that explores the friendship between two women: Kime–a vibrant, unapologetic Black woman who lived with mental illness, and Elena–an Afro Puerto Rican woman and devoted friend coping with grief in the wake of Kime’s death. This story begins as a conversation between Kime and Elena unfolding across time and space. They ask each other about who they are, what they need, and what their future holds. As Kime’s mental health begins to spiral, the film urgently weaves together the past, present, and future in search of answers. Watch Trailer

Launched in 2023, Beyond Walls is an organizing initiative featuring documentary films that define and amplify what prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition means, while inspiring people to imagine and take action toward a world without policing. Beyond Walls continues to resonate across communities in 2024, the recent screening at Dartmouth College stands out as a pivotal moment. Held on May 8, 2024 in Hanover, New Hampshire, the event not only showcased the powerful narratives of Prison Industrial Complex Abolition but also sparked profound reflections and conversations among attendees. Dr. Bench Ansfield, the organizer of the event and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth, highlighted the timely significance of the screening, “coming on the heels of an administrative assault on Palestine solidarity organizing on campus.” This incident, which involved the mass arrest of 90 protestors, within the student encampment known as Brave Space, galvanized student interest in abolitionist visions and ignited a passionate response. One such student, Cameron Moore, who attended the Beyond Walls event on campus, wrote the following reflection: Beyond Walls connects people through shared realities shaped by the prison industrial complex and motivates them toward its abolition. Unlike other documentaries on incarceration, the short  films curated by the Center for Political Education, Critical Resistance, MPD150, and Survived + Punished in partnership with Working Films, focus on the stories of individuals on the inside, as well as the impact of their forced relocation of their loved ones. The films follow how communities organize and support each other as they work to survive and how people on the inside form communities for survival. The underlying theme: mass incarceration is an issue forming and informing the systems around it. What These Walls Won’t Hold details the work of Adamu looking for purpose during his sentence and finding it through organizing with those both on the inside and outside. Both Adamu and communities on the outside worked to expose the conditions of prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic, amongst state inaction. Adamu’s bravery exposed how the prison made the spread of the illness worse through the inhumane conditions the prisoners were forced to withstand. Defund the Police, and Practical Abolition discuss ideas central to the fight for prison abolition. With the choice of simple illustration and captioning, both films encourage more extensive conversations that can span generations, race, education, and more, which is central to organizing. When people can understand how the issue of mass incarceration directly impacts them, their family, or their community, they can organize against it. Calls from Home details the work of an entire community to connect to their incarcerated loved ones. The film highlights the humanity of those on the inside, how inhumane their conditions are once they are incarcerated, and how small acts can be monumental for resisting. The film also highlights the power of Black maternity in the face of mass incarceration, as a group of women come together to support one another, upholding their relationships with family on the inside. In I am Free Now You Are Free, a family is disrupted by incarceration and over-policing due to resistance and works through how it will impact the future. The films collectively give voice to people incarcerated and the lives that are impacted by their absence. Beyond Walls is a call to care. The lives of incarcerated people and their families are shown to question whether our current means of punishment are genuinely effective. The films display the harm resulting from not a crime but the punishment for the crime. One of the mothers in Calls From Home said she could not think of her son all the time because of the wave of emotions and the hopelessness she feels for his situation. The wave of uncontrollable emotions she forces herself not to feel about her son is similar to how people think about loved ones who passed away. The premature death of inmates is evident in the hopelessness felt by their loved ones – emotions strong enough to disrupt your life coupled with the hopelessness of the permanence of their incarceration. In any other context, forced separation between mother and child is unheard of, but putting a 17-year-old away for 50+ years, away from all he knows, is not. The film displays the unique tragedies that incarceration often causes, unknown to those unaffected. Beyond Walls is the perfect example of agency and voice. In the face of over-policing and mass incarceration, it is resistant to view yourself as a human being. The films highlight the long-denied humanity of incarcerated people and speak to the millions of communities that work to support them. The film gives communities affected by mass incarceration methods of resistance that center care in the face of violence and constant dehumanization. Prisons isolate people, treat them inhumanely, and refuse incarcerated people livable conditions and medical treatment, all to reinstate the idea that prisoners are less than human. As the idea that inmates are inhuman grows, prison administrators are allowed to treat prisoners negligently to cut costs despite valid concerns about the conditions in which inmates must live. This intentional neglect is evident through the calls for mass releases in What These Walls Won’t Hold when both Adamu and other community members raised concerns about inmates dying from COVID-19 at gross rates despite widespread knowledge of the health crisis. The films shed light on the people who work effortlessly to get people out of prisons, find legal aid, work to make their conditions more livable, and try to form circles of care that honor the humanity of incarcerated people. All of the films question the notion that incarcerated people are surplus and, therefore, do not add value to the rest of the population. In reality, communities are never the same when hauls of their people are incarcerated, permanently isolating people from their families, friends, jobs, and lives.

Host a screening of Beyond Walls in your local community!