Official Selections
These films represent the breadth of experience that folks impacted by incarceration live through. From poetically moving artist retellings of the incarceration survivor experience to specific calls to action to change the system, all amplify and celebrate the authentice voice and work of incarceration survivors.
A Bridge To Life(2024)
From Director Chris Farina comes a documentary about a hero’s mission to transform the lives of men battling addiction – and the organization he founded to do so. A Bridge to Life is an exploration of resilience, community, giving back, and triumph over hardship, serving as a case study for a compassionate solution to our country’s addiction crisis.
Director Chris Farina’s films specialize in telling the stories of individuals whose profound contributions to their community have often gone unnoticed, expanding the audience’s notion of what it means to be human. His work is guided by the principle of respect for the individuals portrayed, allowing them to tell the stories of their lives and their community.
The Bridge Ministry works in Virginia to transform the lives of troubled men and their families by providing mentoring, vocational skills, education, counseling, and the relationships they need to bridge the gap from addiction to productive community and family life.
While serving a long term sentence in a regional jail, Bridge Ministry founder, William Washington, found the strength to begin a new life. After overcoming a life of addictive behavior, he began reaching out to those in jail through a community meeting. Later, he opened his home to families in his neighborhood and to troubled men who needed help overcoming their addictions. Since 1996, The Bridge Ministry has been providing a second chance for men who are committed to breaking free from life controlling issues.
Being Free (2023)
See people pave paths forward after incarceration.
Follow along as roadtrippers Cordero, Hugo, and London travel throughout the country to see how people like them have overcome societal stigma, personal shame, and plenty of obstacles to realize their full potential and reclaim their lives. Along the way, they realize the road to reintegration is different for everyone—and that can be equal parts intimidating and liberating.
Watch at Roadtrip Nation.
Hugo
Hugo spent 18 years in prison—beginning when he was just 17 years old—and had his sentence commuted under Governor Jerry Brown of California. Since his release, Hugo has worked with nonprofits servicing formerly incarcerated people like Homeboy Industries and The Meaning Foundation. He’s developed a course about dealing with toxic masculinity and hopes to educate others about the importance of finding the human dignity within themselves and everyone else around them. He’s also preparing to become a forensic expert on gangs to serve in the justice system himself. He loves spending time and trying out new restaurants with his son.
London
London grew up in a single-parent New Jersey household and spent eight years of her life in prison. She’s still dealing with the trauma of this experience, but she’s proud of the change she’s accomplished in the process. She’s currently working as a program manager for The Ahimsa Collective, a nonprofit organization bent on reforming systems of punishment to be grounded in love and relationships. She’s also passionate about acting, storytelling, and art. Ultimately, London wants to reconnect with her dreams and help others in situations like hers do the same.
Cordero
Cordero spent a little over 10 years in prison, and he put the time to good use. He became enamored with reading and eventually taught a class to other inmates about philosophy. Since reentry, Cordero has been working hard in the Arizona sun during the week, while also carving out time for his family, volunteer work, and continuing studies at community college. He believes that a lack of education and an adverse environment in his younger years laid the foundation for his eventual incarceration, and he wants to do his best to help provide learning opportunities and stability for other people in similar situations.
Cell Blocks to Mountain Tops (2024)
"Cellblocks to Mountaintops" is a multimedia podcast with a companion video series. It delves into how America addresses violence, defines justice, and seeks accountability through the compelling journey of one man. Years after committing a horrific crime, Sterling Cunio confronts the full ripple effects of the harm he caused. Through artistic expression, human connections, and inspired by restorative justice principles, he undergoes a remarkable personal transformation during decades in prison.
This story serves as a poignant reminder that hope, healing, and redemption are never beyond reach, even in the darkest of places.
Sterling Cunio
Sterling Cunio is an award winning author, playwright and poet. An Oregon Literary Arts Fellow, Pen America Arts for Social justice Fellow, and a World Yes Jammer whose work has been published in The Marshall Project, L.A. Book review and performed by various artist including Grammy award winning musician Antino Sanchez. Sterling sits on the board of Directors of Oregon's Transformative Justice Community and acts as lead facilitator for Regroup, a support and empowerment network of Returning Citizens that played an instrumental role in abolishing the authorization of slavery from Oregon's constitution. Along with currently working for Church at The Park in Salem serving its houseless community, Sterling also works as a lead consultant on the Ubuntu Climate Initiative, a global climate resilience movement focusing on Reuniting people and planet through joy, art and sustainability.
Lydia Smith, Director
Lydia B. Smith is a veteran award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her last documentary, Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago was the #12 documentary in theaters in the US/Canada in 2014 and #5 in Australia/New Zealand, had over 1.2 million viewers on PBS and garnered a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Lydia and Phil Stockton (host) were classmates in high school and remained friends over the years. When Phil put on “The Bucket” at Oregon State Penitentiary, he urged her to come watch the performance. The play mesmerized her, especially the remarkable redemption demonstrated by Sterling Cunio. That very night she committed herself to getting his inspiring story of transformation out into the world.
Finding the Light (2022)
Everyday, Donna and her team at ALPOL operate as a crucial resource to their community. They meet women at the prison gates on the day of their release with a hug and a ride home. They help people find stable and secure housing, and connect them with other resources that allow them to support themselves and their families.
Through Donna’s story, we discover that community organizations like ALPOL have a more important role to play in ending incarceration and achieving public safety than judges, prisons, police or parole officers. We also learn that Donna and her team played an integral role in the passage of the Less is More Act. Fully enacted, the new law will put New York at the forefront of shifting parole from being overly punitive to being supportive, focusing on making reentry effective and keeping communities safe.
Finding the Light is a co-production between Represent Justice and Donna Hylton.
Watch at Represent Justice.
Donna Hylton is an activist and author who advocates for the rights and well-being of women and girls who have been impacted by intersectional trauma such as violent and sexual abuse and assault, domestic violence, police brutality, and incarceration. She is an outspoken proponent of the need to incorporate harm reduction into our policies for addressing societal and justice issues within a humane framework.
A Little Piece of Light (ALPOL) seeks to empower and facilitate healing for women, girls, and gender-fluid individuals who are directly impacted by trauma from and involvement in the criminal justice system.
Led by formerly incarcerated and family members of incarcerated individuals, ALPOL mobilizes those that share their collective trauma incited by sexism, racism, violence, poverty, and incarceration.
From Pen To Paper (2024)
Twenty-four residents--mostly lifers--sat across from a dozen college students on a maximum security prison yard in southern California as part of an innovative and inspiring creative writing program. For 14 weeks, the residents learned to express themselves openly and honestly, many for the first time in their lives, to a group of strangers, in a setting where survival often demands alienation, disaffection, even violence.
And the students--at first apprehensive, even hateful--discovered that the men across from them were far from the callous and unfeeling monsters they had expected to meet.
Though their often intimate collaboration, both groups found hope and humanity in a place where they had expected neither.
Paul Sutton
Paul has produced multiple award-winning prison documentaries; published numerous books, articles, and and research monographs; and appeared frequently in print and broadcast media as an expert on a variety of criminal justice policies and practices.
After creating a series of feature-length prison documentaries, he has more recently ventured into the creation of more novel products--a video poem, a "short" about prison-trained service animals, and an expanded, nostalgic treatment of the small town where he grew up.
Little April (2022)
Like Represent Justice Ambassador April Grayson, 90% of youth who come to be involved in the justice system have had prior traumatic experiences.
April’s life virtually began in the foster care system. She spent her formative years in households and spaces where she was abused and mistreated by those entrusted with her safety and wellbeing. By 19, April was arrested and sentenced to 20 years and 8 months in prison, serving 17 of those years. Weaving together documentary and fiction elements, the film illuminates a cinematic and ultimately magical path to transforming our youth justice system.
Watch at Represent Justice.
April Grayson
As the statewide coordinator for a coalition comprised of formerly and currently incarcerated women, April Grayson works to build power in young people to be leaders of change and raise awareness of the unfair sentencing and criminalization of young women and girls. She has dedicated her life to raising awareness of the mass incarceration of juveniles and women locked up in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. After spending 17 years in the carceral system, Grayson is fully aware of the criminalization of women and girls. Knowing first-hand the terrors of incarceration, she strives to give women behind bars a voice, and goes inside prisons to inspire and empower women with the hope of a better life. Grayson is at the forefront of legislative efforts intended to ensure women and girls are treated equally within the criminal justice system. She lives and loves what she does and will continue to fight until the system changes the way it treats our incarcerated women and young girls.
On Beyond Fences (2024)
A rare, intimate look inside Maine State Prison, where efforts to reform the historically brutal institution (the basis for Stephen King's novella and the feature film, "The Shawshank Redemption") have dramatically shifted the prison culture, the way "residents" do their time and, ultimately, how they return to their communities.
Everyone featured, from Shaun, who’s doing 47 years, to Maine D.O.C Commissioner, Randall Liberty has a stake in its success. So do the communities where the former inmates will return. As former guard, Scott Drake, says: “A lot of these guys get out. And you know where they move to? Next to you! I don’t want a guy who’s messed up and has issues living next to me. I want him to get his mind right, or at least try.”
“Lara" Jacqueline Hartzenbusch: Lara is a Washington DC-based independent journalist and seasoned international broadcast television and digital content producer with 25+ years of experience covering some of the most consequential stories of our time across Asia, Europe and the United States.
She has a long-association with BBC News (London and DC) and has worked in program, field, long-form, special projects and planning producing roles.
She also works with other broadcast news, documentary and digital content clients. Her producing and reporting credits include docs for PBS Frontline, as well as Smithsonian Channel.
As an emerging filmmaker, Lara produced and co-filmed/directed and executive produced the documentary short, On Beyond Fences—a film about reform and redemption inside Maine State Prison. It began its life as a project for the Maine Media Workshop+College in Rockport Maine.
She oversaw the post-production phase and is currently leading the marketing and promotion of the film.
Lara loves visual storytelling and finding compelling people, places and pictures to help convey those stories. She's most passionate about those that shine a light on under-reported issues and result in positive change.
Songs From The Hole (2024)
The 2024 SxSW Vision Audience Award Winner weaves music and storytelling into an innovative documentary visual album. At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. A moving chronicle of forgiveness, family, and the transformative power of art. Through clear-eyed narration and lyrical journal
entries, incarcerated musician JJ’88” reveals his innermost struggles as a person who has both committed and experienced violent harm. While serving a double-life prison sentence, he searches for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary-musical odyssey composed behind bars.
See the trailer on DailyMotion
JJ'88:
A musician, music producer, writer, vocalist and filmmaker from Long Beach, California. He is a prison abolitionist who served a 40-years-to-life sentence he was sentenced to at 15-years-old in California state prison. His music and story are the focal point of the visual album-documentary he wrote and co-produced, Songs from the Hole, which premiered and won the audience award at SXSW in 2024. He has released three singles since coming home from prison including his latest, “Hustla’s Lament.” He is featured Billboard, Variety and Rolling Stone Magazines.
richie reseda
richie reseda practices transformative justice in his relationships and daily life. He is a formerly-incarcerated music and film producer, content creator, organizer, and creative director. He produced the feature film, Songs from the Hole, as well as its original music. He co-created and co-hosted the Spotify Original podcast, Abolition X, and serves as Political and Creative Firector for The For Everyone Fashion Collective. While in prison he started the worker-owned media collective Question Culture, and co-founded Success Stories Program, the feminist-accountability program chronicled in the CNN documentary, The Feminist on Cellblock Y, also directed by Contessa Gayles.
Contessa Gayles is an award-winning director, writer, and DP, known for her impactful storytelling on identity, Black liberation, and socio-political movements. Her critically acclaimed feature, Songs from the Hole, won the SXSW 2024 Audience Award and the 2024 BlackStar Film Festival Jury Prize, among others. Her work has premiered at Tribeca and SXSW, and has been supported by organizations like Sundance Institute and Field of Vision. Previously, she directed and produced for CNN, earning an Emmy nomination for Feeding America's Most Vulnerable Children.
What These Walls Won't Hold (2023)
Transcending the grim realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, Adamu Chan's powerful documentary, "What These Walls Won't Hold," paints a poignant portrait of resilience and hope blossoming within the confines of San Quentin State Prison. Chan, formerly incarcerated himself, offers a unique insider's view as he weaves a tapestry of relationships that bind together his community. The film delves into his own journey towards freedom, while simultaneously amplifying the voices of his fellow incarcerated and their loved ones on both sides of the prison walls.
Watch on PBS
Adamu Chan: He is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and community organizer whose artistry is deeply rooted in relationships and lived experience. Based in the Bay Area, Adamu discovered his passion for filmmaking during his incarceration at San Quentin State Prison, where he used his unique perspective to craft powerful visual stories that amplify voices often silenced. His films invite viewers into conversations about social justice, resilience, and the transformative power of community.
