Let’s Get Free has commissioned these films from 2019-2023. The are listed chronologically starting with the most recent.
Across the Walls by Njaimeh Njie of Eleven Stanley Productions
Across the Walls is a documentary film that offers an intimate glimpse into the experiences of women sentenced to life in prison without parole in the state of Pennsylvania. After decades of activism and community building, recently Avis Lee and Paulette Carrington were released from life sentences after each serving over 40 years. As they adjust to life outside, they’ve kept their focus on organizing to end life without parole, and helping the women they left inside be released.
The film stages a conversation between Avis and Paulette on the outside and five women who are still on the inside – Maria Rodriguez, Denise Crump, Kimerly Joynes, Betty Heron and Brittany Williams. Using interviews, found footage, and landscape cinematography, the film assembles a story about the women’s interior lives, against the backdrop of spaces they’ve inhabited and spaces they’ve been taken away from. Never straying from the women’s points of view, Across the Walls is a meditation on memory and manifestations for a free future.
Across the Walls was commissioned by the 58th Carnegie International, a large-scale exhibition that features artists and organizations from around the WORLD.The curatorial team has selected artists and movement builders who have been and are creating interventions and imaginations among geopolitical conflict and systems of oppression.
A Good Future: Sarita’s Story by Tusko Films (2021—10 minutes)
Hi my name is Sarita Miller and I’m going on my 17th year in prison. I’m 51 with three children and three grandchildren. I’m very adamant when it comes to drug addiction and trauma issues. Trauma and drug addiction seems to go hand and hand and I believe that until the root causes of trauma are dealt with we will never see a significant change in decreasing the population in prisons especially among our youth. I’m a Christian woman and I know without God I would have never made it through these years.
Recorded in the Fall of 2019 by Tusco Films and made possible by support from the The Open Society Foundation and The Pittsburgh Foundation.
A Ticking Heart: Charmaine’s Story by Tusko Films (2021—10 minutes)
January 18th 2021 will mark Charmaine Pfender’s 55th birthday. She has served over 30 years of a life sentence for defending herself from sexual violence. This footage was filmed in 2019 by Tusko films and made possible by support from the The Open Society Foundation and The Pittsburgh Foundation.
Wide Open (7 minutes) by Wren Rene
Tamika Bell, Paulette Carrington and Starr Granger were sentenced to die in Pennsylvania when they were teenagers. After decades in prison – over 90 years collectively – Tamika, Paulette and Starr were released after the US Supreme court ruled that sentencing youth to life without parole was unconstitutional. This short film poetically depicts some of what the transition home from prison has looked and felt like.
You Deserve Better Than Prison: Messages to Youth from Women Serving Life (4 minutes)
The topic of this film was the idea of Avis Lee who is currently awaiting a public hearing that will decide her freedom. The desire to protect young people from similar paths is echoed throughout PA prisons and this piece showcases many voices, including family members and formerly incarcerated women who were sentenced to die as young people.
We Are More Than Our Worst Day (12 minutes)
This poignant vignette features the transformative journeys of Tequilla Fields and Tameka Flowers who are both seeking commutation. This film radiates resilience and the power to change that is widespread amongst people with death by incarceration sentences.
Pennsylvania’s Commutation Process: Naomi Blount’s Experience (20 minutes)
This piece takes you through one woman’s journey of the lengthy and laborious steps of achieving freedom from a life sentence. Naomi Blount was the second woman to receive commutation in the last 30 years and at the time of filming has been home for one year.
Released in August of 2020 the three films above were all produced by Tusko Films.