Sharing the unfiltered intersections of prejudice, policy change, prison reform, and paradigm-shifting court battles that lead to restorative justice.

Using images from 27 Black Lives Matter Protests to tell the story of 16 people killed by the police. Told with poetic context and striking imagery.

Say Their Names

From the Shadows uses the imagery of public art to delve into missing narratives. Paint cans and stencils in hand, Leena Kejriwal relentlessly sprays splattered walls with a girl’s shadow #missing #everyeightminutes, a haunting reminder that girls disappear at a staggering pace. The narrative starts from her terrace overlooking Asia’s largest red-light district and into the world’s largest delta, quick sands of missing cases. The day Samina returns and asks for help to file a case against her traffickers, Leena steps up to support a prosecution case. A grueling court battle questions, whether law enforcement instead of protecting victims are part of a network that exploits them? Leena connects with veteran activist Hasina, who helped survivor Ella win the rare conviction of a kingpin despite 400 witnesses turning hostile. Parallel narratives intersect to reveal a sliver of hope when women challenge a powerful trafficking nexus operating in a country where every 8 minutes a child goes missing. Nominated for the Toronto International Women's Film Festival and selected for a special Women's Day screening by South Asian House in the run up to SXSW 2023. Call to Action:﻿https://www.filmindependent.org/programs/fiscal-sponsorship/from-the-shadows/ Donate to help stop human trafficking

From the Shadows

IF LIGHT CLOSED ITS EYES is a film of a verbatim documentary play, created from 100 interviews, exploring the criminal justice system and shared humanity. This production was performed, designed, and produced with over 100 incarcerated artists, with the guidance of the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative faculty, in Sterling Correctional Facility in the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) and is the culmination of over two and a half years of work by the creative team. The live theatre production was performed for over 1,200 people (CDOC Staff, Residents, and the public) in the summer of 2022 in a cell house in Sterling Correctional Facility. The DU Prison Arts Initiative filmed this production to share its impact more broadly. Call to Action:The DU Prison Arts Initiative generates creative and collaborative learning experiences that enrich the lives of incarcerated people and shift the conversation about prison. We create high-quality therapeutic arts programming across Colorado. Our work empowers individuals to improve the quality of their lives and prepare to make positive changes in their communities upon release. We are a nonprofit organization that uses donations and grants to help fund and provide programming for those impacted by the criminal justice system. If you are interested in donating and helping our cause, please follow the link: https://liberalarts.du.edu/prison-arts/give

If Light Closed Its Eyes

A documentary created by residents of the Rappahannock Juvenile Detention Center Call to Action:﻿Support and learn about the studio that made this movie: lighthousestudio.org

It's Not Over

The purpose of this documentary short is to explain my definition of "America's 3rd World" – the marginalized, largely ignored communities within America’s borders that operate under de-facto laws, codes of ethics, and institutions, such as the incarcerated, homeless, those battling mental health, the poor, black and brown communities, and more.With this project we aim to humanize the current and formerly incarcerated, centering the narrative around our common humanity, which we view as divine. We will highlight the necessary resistance and joy that I've found characterizes the citizens of America’s 3rd World, myself included.The film will juxtapose the struggle of constant resistance with the joy of having a dream you are willing to take a risk and go after, even in the face of consequences as severe as loss of freedom. It thus repositions “criminals” as dreamers, people no different from entrepreneurs or even Dr. King – someone willing to risk it all for the life they envision for themselves and those they love.This, we hope, will intrigue viewers to new perspectives on how our society can engage our [criminal] dreamers and better align resources. And, most importantly, we hope to intrigue viewers to reimagine the divinity inherent in all humans, including residents of America’s 3rd World. Call to Action:https://linktr.ee/3rdworldletters

Letters from America's 3rd World

Mark Cook has struggled against racism and all social injustice his entire life. Now in his late 80's, Mark continues to champion the values he adopted when first introduced to the Black Panther Party as a young man in prison in the 1960's. Mark is a beloved and inspiring activist in the community where he carries on the fight for justice to this day. His dedication to all prisoners and workers of the world is a testament to the power of organizing the oppressed in struggle.

Mark Cook, Inside And Out

From 2017-2019, Chicago Black youth and other youth of color powerfully organized and led an effort against the construction of a $95 million dollar cop academy, and demanded the city of Chicago fund youth and communities instead. This one-hour documentary chronicles the explosive #NoCopAcademy campaign through those who lived it. Call to Action:learn more about how you can support successful reentry: https://voicesofreentry.org/resources/

No Cop Academy: The Documentary

Twenty-four hard-core inmates, mostly lifers, took on a rare, even perilous, challenge on a maximum-security prison yard when they sat down in a unique creative writing experiment to learn 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. For 14 weeks, inmates sat across from 12 college “mentors” who were there as much to observe as to instruct about these men’s deepest feelings and most closely guarded emotions. The inmates, initially apprehensive at the prospect of a vulnerability they had never known, learned to trust, to explore, and to share in ways foreign to most. And the students, equally apprehensive, even hateful at first, discovered that the men across from them were far from the callous and unfeeling monsters they had expected to meet deep inside prison walls. Through their often intimate and unmonitored interactions, both groups found hope and humanity in a place where they had expected to find neither.

Straight from the Pen

The Riots is a found footage documentary film that unveils the outcries of police brutality. With the use of found footage from social media and archival footage from the 1963 Civil Rights demonstrations this film recalls the lives lost from police violence over the years. Call to Action:﻿https://blacklivesmatter.com Visit the website connected to the Black Lives Matter Movement

The Riots

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. Call to Action:﻿Learn more about how you can support successful reeentry: https://voicesofreentry.org/resources/

Voices of Reentry

Criminal Justice Reform

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ChangeFest is a transformative experience that occupies the intersection of storytelling and activism to educate and inspire the international community on global wrongs, while also pairing that experience with opportunities to get involved with organizations committed to righting the wrongs.

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