Beyond Walls—a project in partnership with Working Films—will feature five short documentaries and a panel with local justice advocates from New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police and more
September 28, 2023, New Orleans, LA – The Patois Film Collective has partnered with Working Films and New Orleans-based advocacy organizations to host the free screening series Beyond Walls, showcasing five short documentaries and a panel conversation with local criminal justice advocates and leaders.
Beyond Walls is an organizing initiative featuring documentary films that define and examine what prison industrial complex abolition means from a wide range of perspectives with the goal of inspiring people to imagine and take action toward a world invested in community and not punitive practices.
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What: Beyond Walls: 5 Films for Prison Industrial Complex Abolition
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When: Thursday, September 28 at 7 PM
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Where: John Thompson Legacy Center at 1212 St. Bernard Ave., New Orleans, LA 70116
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Link: Eventbrite link and Facebook link
Two short animations featured in Beyond Walls challenge the idea that investing in policing will solve society’s problems. The films instead imagine what’s possible if society invested in resources that actually keep communities safe. One of the films featured in Beyond Walls, Adamu Chan’s highly acclaimed What These Walls Won’t Hold, explores how relationships built on trust, shared liberatory struggle, and connections across broader abolitionist organizing work, can unfold into sites of resistance and radical change.
“These films are important because they not only show the inhumanity of mass incarceration, and how when a person goes to prison, it’s the entire family that does time… they also show real, viable alternative solutions,” says Patois Film Collective member Darlene Jones. “We as a society have tried the ‘lock them up’ solution, and it clearly doesnt work. It’s TIME to incorporate community-based solutions into the question of criminal justice.”
In addition to the short films, Beyond Walls will include a moderated panel with local community advocates, including the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights’ Outreach Coordinator Shon Williams, feminist researcher/artist Shana M. griffin, and more.
The Beyond Walls screening and panel is free with RSVP.
About PATOIS Film Collective
Founded in 2004 by artists and activists in New Orleans, PATOIS has premiered hundreds of powerful social justice-oriented films from around the world while highlighting brilliant local filmmakers and vital grassroots organizations. PATOIS is dedicated to nurturing New Orleans’ human rights community, supporting the work of organizers and organizations involved in these struggles, and providing a forum for artistic expression of local and international issues. In addition to the film festival in spring, PATOIS hosts a variety of community screenings, workshops and organizing events throughout the year.
About Beyond Borders and Working Films
Beyond Walls is a project of Working Films, a national nonprofit organization based in Wilmington, NC. Recognizing the power of stories to inspire and transform, Working Films builds partnerships between nonfiction media-makers, nonprofit organizations, educators, and advocates to advance social justice and environmental sustainability, and support community-based change. Beyond Walls was curated by: Center for Political Education, Critical Resistance, MPD150, and Survived + Punished.
