Catalog
Search
Back to Festival Site
Need help?
Login
Catalog
Search
Back to Festival Site
Help
Login
Welcome to the 2025 San Quentin Film Festival Virtual Festival!
Official Selection
After decades of wrongful imprisonment, David Bryant’s fight for freedom becomes a powerful reflection of resilience and systemic failure—a haunting journey that exposes the human cost of injustice and the enduring struggle to reclaim one’s voice, hope, and humanity.
41 min | 2024 | United States
42 Years For Nothing
An inspiring look at formerly incarcerated students in a groundbreaking Southern California community college program, revealing how education can heal, empower, and transform lives—opening doors to new careers, hope, and family restoration.
94 min | 2023 | United States
Almost Home: Life After Incarceration
BEYOND SURVIVAL exposes the powerful human stories behind New York’s groundbreaking Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, revealing how survivors, advocates, and lawmakers fought to transform a system that once punished victims of abuse.
65 min | 2024 | United States
Beyond Survival
Khalid, a charismatic big dreamer from Brooklyn, gets stuck in a small town on the Black Sea after chasing an opportunity for money that goes wrong. Being the only black guy in the town, he quickly becomes the center of the town’s attention
94 min | 2024 | United States
The Black Sea
A prisoner’s emotional awakening through an AI therapist turns perilous when his impending parole forces the program to fight for its own survival.
16 min | 2025 | United States
By Artificial Means
After their Life Without Parole sentences are commuted, Dara and Tommy embark on a lifelong journey of redemption and renewal.
19 min | 2024 | United States
Chasing Redemption
A ghost-hunting show turns deadly when satire meets the supernatural inside an asylum for the criminally insane.
11 min | 2025 | United States
Chasing the Ghost
Film Logline WHO AM I TO YOU?
106 min | 2025 | United States
CHRISTIANS AND CANNIBALS
A veteran prison chef who’s built a legacy of redemption through fine dining faces his toughest test yet—his faith in one man’s potential to change.
91 min | 2022 | United States
Coldwater Kitchen
Onquette and her son, Eric, lead five generations of their family in the fight to free her father—imprisoned for over fifty years because of a legal loophole.
31 min | 2025 | United States
Coming Home
The journey of Coss Mart as he builds ConBody, a gym inspired by workouts he developed while in prison. Committed to employing formerly incarcerated trainers, he creates a community fighting to break the cycle of recidivism, while navigating society’s many obstacles to reentry
126 min | 2025 | United States
Conbody vs Everybody (Chapter 1 & 2)
The crushing isolation of incarceration leads one man on a journey to find healing for himself and others by starting a self-help program inside prison.
15 min | 2025 | United States
Deprived: Alone, Afraid, & Ashamed
36 min | 2025 | United States
Exodus
Produced by NBA star Cole Anthony and Grammy Award–winner CeCe Winans, "Fatherless No More" follows an Orlando pastor and former Super Bowl Champion who answers a divine call to live in an RV outside New York’s Rikers Island. His mission grows into a year of transformative encounters and redemption within the jail’s walls.
87 min | 2025 | United States
Fatherless No More
Brandon and Royal trained as firefighters when they were incarcerated, becoming professional firefighters after their release. After securing their own careers, they found a nonprofit to train other formerly incarcerated firefighters, helping them beat the odds and build lives of purpose and stability .
75 min | 2024 | United States
Firebreak
A cinematic mosaic of verité and rare, archival footage, the film debuts the poetry of Venida Brodnax Browder, mother of Kalief Browder - an African-American teenager whose death inspired incarceration reform in the United States and the movement to transform Rikers Island.
95 min | 2025 | United States
For Venida, For Kalief
Founders / SQFF Selects Package
A journey into the heart of resilience and redemption, "Grillo" is the story of a man finding freedom and purpose after a life of incarceration.
17 min | 2024 | United States
Grillo - Breaking the Cycle
The Holly goes deep inside a gentrifying community in Denver, where a shooting case involving an activist becomes a window into the political machinations of urban development, policing and the city's gang activity.
103 min | 2022 | United States
The Holly
Ronnie Carrasquillo appears destined to die in prison. 47 years after his murder conviction, his life is in the hands of a parole board, whose decision-making is swayed by shifting political sands and the powerful police union. The story of one man’s fight for freedom.
73 min | 2024 | United States
In Their Hands
A personal journey and exploration of Plato's The Cave and how one's life path can be reflected in that allegory of education's impact on the human experience.
8 min | 2025 | United States
The Inception of Shadows
New York visual artist Molly Crabapple, teams up with Keith LaMar to share the harrowing story of how he came to be wrongfully-convicted and sentenced to death following the 1993 Lucasville Prison Uprising.
7 min | 2025 | United States
The Injustice of Justice
Two comedians step inside an Indiana prison and spark a talent contest featuring comedy, music, and spoken word — part showcase, part second chance.
86 min | 2025 | United States
Inmates with Talent
Driven by the personal stories of five youth who were justice-involved as teens, JUVENILE traces their pathways into the system, their journeys of trauma and healing, and their lessons for how to break and remake the juvenile system.
58 min | 2022 | United States
Juvenile
Shining a light on the persistent inequities faced by Black women entrepreneurs in the booming cannabis industry, the film highlights their resilience, unwavering determination, and the urgent need for reform in the industry.
20 min | 2025 | United States
Kiss My Grass
Carter is in denial about his guilt until a fellow incarcerated man and a prison psychologist compel him to participate in a self-help group.
15 min | 2025 | United States
The Maple Leaf
A New Voice follows the inspiring journeys of formerly incarcerated citizens rebuilding their lives and communities, offering a rare glimpse into the resilience, success, and transformation that define life after prison.
17 min | 2023 | United States
A New Voice
After decades of incarceration, Oscar steps back into society and faces the challenge of rebuilding his life from scratch.
11 min | 2025 | United States
Oscar's Return
Merging the grit of documentary storytelling with the expressive power of dance, Processing explores the untold stories of women of color awaiting release from prison.
15 min | 2025 | United States
Processing
Formed inside San Quentin by men serving life sentences, the band Quentin Blue found new life after release. Reunited in a sober living home in Compton, the members channel their past into music, healing, and the journey of rebuilding life beyond prison walls.
30 min | 2023 | United States
Quentin Blue
This film tells the story of two incarcerated, hearing-impaired people overcoming the struggle and stigma of their disability by starting an ASL class geared toward teaching their peers their language in order to be heard by all.
15 min | 2025 | United States
Silent Treatment
Directed by Dawn Porter, The Sing Sing Chronicles is a riveting four-part documentary series following 22 years of investigative reporting by NBC News journalist Dan Slepian that helped overturn wrongful convictions in five homicide cases and free six innocent men.
97 min | 2024 | United States
The Sing Sing Chronicles
Vaughn Miles fell into the dangers of his environment at an early age. Sentenced to life in prison at the age of twenty, it took him years to transform his life, a living reflection of the impact of prison rehabilitation programs on individuals and a path to gun violence prevention in communities.
76 min | 2023 | United States
Sitting in the Fire
Jeffrey Deskovic was convicted at the age of 16 of the rape and murder of Angela Correa, a high school classmate. His fight for freedom sheds light on the shortcoming of the American justice system and the resilience of the human spirit.
92 min | 2024 | United States
Sixteen Years
An argument between classmates creates a rift in time and space, sending them on a chaotic journey while the others hatch a plan to get them back.
6 min | 2025 | United States
Slap Back in Time
The night before her teenage sister Marie heads to jail, Sweet Tea must deliver a crash course on ‘how to jail’, drawn from her own time locked up. Inspired by real conversations between co-writer TIny Cruz and a friend facing incarceration.
15 min | 2025 | United States
So, Boom
The story of an incarcerated man facing a mental health crisis and the struggle of those around him as they raise the alarm and seek help on his behalf.
15 min | 2025 | United States
Warning Signs
Founders Select
Finding Ma
The People in Blue
Coming in 15 hrs
The Prison Outside
Silent Treatment
Coming Soon
The People in Blue
Coming in 15 hrs