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This is a story about a woman prisoner who stood up against the California Department of Corrections. Charisse Shumate, who lived with sickle cell disease all her life, became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the abominable health care conditions that woman in California’s prisons face. Charisse and other women prisoners risked their lives to demand basic human rights for all those incarcerated and joined with advocates and family members on the outside to found the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.

Community Panels for Youth – A Community- Based Alternative to Juvenile Court

Beyondmedia worked with three Chicago communities and Northwestern University’s Children and Family Justice Center to produce the Community Panels for Youth video-and-handbook set, illustrating how to create an alternative to juvenile court and youth incarceration that is organized and run by community people. Part one is an overview of the project and Part two includes a simulated panel hearing.

Blur of spinning color wheels come rolling down the street – the lead is a three wheeler that ends rotations of color and the tease of candy snacks

Tyrone AKA Scraper Bike King attempts to create the next best thing to having his own scraper car known in oakland hyphy style rap culture for the matching body and wheel colors. This film shows The Scraper Bike team – a group of teens - all decked out on their souped up bicylces cruising through the streets of Oakland, CA The recently got some buzz for their self title music video which was nominated as one of You tubes best music videos in 2007

Up the Ridge offers viewers an in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands on inner-city offenders to distant rural outposts.

Living with Life

A Theater of Witness piece with eight men serving life sentences. “How can I ask forgiveness when because of me, a life was robbed? How do i make amends?”

Life Sentence

“It is truly a beautiful evocation of the tragedy of lifetime parole. Through skillful direction and editing the individual stories become personal and engaging so that when it becomes apparent that these people are all on parole for life, one can’t believe it could be true! One is not hit over the head, it sneaks up on you in true narrative fashion and makes you feel sadness and injustice” – Susan Mareneck, Acting Director, Interfaith Coalition of Advocates for Reentry & Employment

Turning the Corner tells the stories of people involved in sex work and their efforsts to raise public awareness of systemic injustice and promote needed reforms. Created in a Byeondmedia Education media activism workshop with 15 members of Prostitution Alternatives Round Table (PART), this groundbreaking film recounts their struggle with homelessness, violence and discrimination, and gives rare insights into Chicago’s sex trade.

Through personal stories, poetry, group discussion and on-the-street interview, women former prisoners share their experiences of incarceration as women and as mothers. They painfully address the effects of their incarceration and they look to young people for fresh answers. The result is a rich tapestry of perspectives that undermine stereotypes about women in prison and demonstrate the power of disenfranchised groups to shape their won media images.

Voices in Time is a window into the lives of women who have served time in prison. In emotionally-charged interviews, women share their experiences before, in and after prison and examine the relationship between the prison system and poor communities and communities of color. Also featured is Echoes of a Caged Soul, written and performed by former prisoner Pamela Thomas. This compelling presentation exposes the unspoken truths about prison, delicately and creatively shared by women who have experienced first hand the trauma behind and beyond the wall.

Understanding the Big Picture of the Big House by The Prison Poster Project – One Hour and 10 minutes – Slide show of illustrated and narrated by people in prison

The Prison Poster Project (PPP) is an artistic presentation that aims to expose how the prison industrial complex affects our diverse communities and to challenge current reliance on prisons as a solution to social problems. Over the past 5 years a collective of artists and activists on the outside and over 100 people in prison have collaborated to visually depict the multitude of issues facing the 2.3+million incarcerated people. This workshop will be a narrative-picture-presentation taking participants through the historical roots of prisons, resistance to them and into the daily life of people living behind the razor wire. There are over 40 illustrations in this digital slide show which is narrated largely through transcriptions of prisoner’s writings. We choose to use art because art makes knowledge accessible across age, race, class, gender and geographic lines. Through this project, we can amplify the voices of many that go unheard and generate visions of a more just and caring world.

3 Black Panthers & the Last Slave Plantation Narrated by Mumia Abu-Jamal (2006)

3 Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation tells the gripping story of three members of the Black Panther Party, known collectively as the Angola 3. One of the most brutal and racist prisons in the United States, Angola Prison in Louisiana was transformed from a Civil War era slave plantation to a hard labor prison. After 33+ years in solitary confinement for their political beliefs the Angola 3 continue to the struggle for dignity, justice and human rights. This film encourages viewers to think critically about the history of racism in U.S. prisons, and offers possibilities to become active in changing the conditions of the prison system.

Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex a Justseeds Portfolio Project. With various mediums (screenprints, linocuts, stencils) The project involved twenty artists from the US, Canada and Mexico who each created an original print that either critiqued or addressed alternatives to the prison-industrial complex. It would be great if there was a chance to show these prints in conjunction with some of the films.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Up the Ridge is a one-hour documentary that offers viewers an in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city offenders to distant rural outposts . The filmmakers were motivated by letters sent from Wallens Ridge State Prison that described human rights violations, racial tension, and cultural conflict between staff and inmates. http://www.appalshop.org/h2h/film/

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“A Sentence of Their Own” (2001) by Edgar A. Barens. 64 minutes. Chronicles one family’s annual pilgrimage to a New Hampshire State Prison and reveals the damaging impact incarceration has on families. www.asentenceoftheirown.com

HOW DO YOU SPELL MURDER? chronicles a year in the life of a group of men who are illiterate and incarcerated in New Jersey. It explores the powerful connection between illiteracy and crime. The film profiles several of student-tutor teams working together. The prisoners recount years of humiliation in the public school system, where they were either held back repeatedly or promoted without adequate preparation. Many have undiagnosed learning disorders. Almost all are dropouts. Their years of frustration and anger were brought to unyielding conclusions at criminal trials where they could barely grasp the legal documents and procedures that determined their fates.

The film profiles one such student-tutor team from their first session through to a year later when the student can read. Inmate tutor Sammy recounts that he was functionally illiterate when he entered prison. While in prison he taught himself to read and is now a poet as well as a tutor.

“Corrections” (2000) by Ashley Hunt. 58 minutes. The story of justice turned to profit. www.independentfilms.com

The Reentry National Media Outreach Campsign - offers media resources that will facilitate community discussion and decision making about solution-based reentry programs. A list of documentaries and media resources is available by visiting their website: www.reentrymediaoutreach.org

Red Hook Justice--Imagine a court that works for change instead of punishment. A film by Meema Spadola. 60 minutes.

This Black Soil: A Story of Resistance and Rebirth (2004), directed by Teresa Konechne and produced by Working Hands Productions.This film chronicles the successful struggle of Bayview, Virginia, a small and severely impoverished rural African-American community, to pursue a new vision of prosperity. Catalyzed by the defeat of a state plan to build a maximum-security prison in their backyard, the powerful women leaders and residents created the Bayview Citizens for Social Justice non-profit organization, secured $10 million in grants, purchased the proposed prison site land and are now building a new community from the ground up.

TROOP 1500 follows five young Girl Scouts—sisters Caitlin and Mikaela, Jasmine, Jessica and Naomi—whose mothers are serving time.

“Voices in Time” 36 minutes. A window into the lives of women who have served time in prison. In emotionally charged interviews, women share their experiences before, in and after prison and examine the relationship between the prison system and poor communities and communities of color. www.beyondmedia.org

“What I Want My Words to Do to You” (2003). This program goes inside a writing workshop led by playwright Eve Ensler, consisting of 15 women inmates of New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, most of whom were convicted of murder. The women delve into and expose the most terrifying places in themselves, as they grapple with the nature of their crimes and their own culpability. The film culminates in an emotionally charged prison performance of the women's writing. PBS Videos Link.

“What We Leave Behind” (2000). Produced by Visible Voices and Women’s International Information Project. 20 minutes. A video made by formerly incarcerated women that challenges stereotypes about women in prison and examines the impact of their incarceration on their children. www.beyondmedia.org

“Yes In My Back Yard” (1999)by Tracy Huling. 57 minutes. Examines rural dependence on prisons and probes the impact on the keepers and the kept. Order from: galgirls@francomm.com