Virginia Film Festival

Too often the authentic stories, voices, and talents of incarceration survivors are lost in filmmaking in an effort to achieve someone else’s goals. In the process, harmful stereotypes are perpetuated, whether intentionally of not.

The Virginia Film Festival is proud to partner with The Inthrive Film Festival to host this series of short films that celebrate authentic voices and bring the talents of incarceration survivors to the fore.

Two Wolves (6 min.) Prison is dark and hopelessness is darker. But the path forward starts with self-empowerment and there are many examples before and around us of how to reach our potential and achieve liberation.

Until We All Count (16 min.) In Georgia, hundreds of thousands of people cannot vote because of a felony conviction. Page and Kareemah, two friends who crossed paths in prison, have different stories but a common goal, to raise awareness and end the discriminatory practice of taxation without representation.

Roommates (10 min.) After completing lengthy prison terms, two women forge a strong bond within a nursing home catering to the formerly incarcerated. Creating a positive present tense in the wake of complicated pasts, these survivors cling to simplicity, routine, and each other.

Still Here (17 min.) Telling the story of three brothers whose coming of age was stained by violence, poverty, and prison through first person recollections, the Barrera brothers confront childhood trauma and the compounding loss of freedom. But this isn’t a story about hopelessness – it’s an intimate exploration of a love that endures decades of separation.

Discussion with filmmakers Beatrice Alda and J Brooke. Moderated by Taj Mahon-Haft (Executive Director of The Humanization Project).