The captive creativity and immense talent of San Quentin resident filmmakers shone through at the second annual San Quentin Film Festival Oct. 23-24. Residents mingled and networked with film directors, actors and producers, including Jesse Williams of “Grey’s Anatomy,” and Sheryl Lee Ralph, known for many roles on hit shows like “Moesha” and “Abbott Elementary.”
But even more significant than networking was the chance residents got to showcase their skills with their creation of short films and documentaries, and by doing so, helping to reveal that incarcerated people who choose to rehabilitate have more to offer the world than the negative stereotypes of violence and crime.
“Lack of proximity helps to add to the negative image of people locked up. Events like the film festival are a way to remove the implicit bias,” said Eric “Maserati E” Abercrombie, an Emmy-nominated musician who has become widely successful since paroling from San Quentin in 2019 after nine years of incarceration.
Aside from working to improve the image of incarcerated people, Abercrombie said events inside of prisons are needed to “help restore incarcerated people’s relationships with the community” by building bridges and connections.
Incarcerated people, current and former, used the platform to share their stories of trauma and redemption, the many effects of mass incarceration, and the hope that is born from steady resilience and purposeful change.
Two amazing standout films were “Processing,” which dives deep into the effects of incarceration on women of color, and “The Sing Sing Chronicles” which explores the story of Jon-Adrian Velasquez, wrongly convicted of robbery and murder and the investigative journalist who befriended him and fought tirelessly to prove Velasquez’s innocence.
Another wonderful documentary presented at the festival was “The People in Blue,” directed by San Quentin’s own Louis Sale. The film shows what positive change and healthy reform looks like when incarcerated men have a seat at the decision-making table.
The creative talents on display blew guests away. “It is very important that people from the outside come in and speak to people who are incarcerated,” said Brian Asey Gonsoulin, a producer at the film festival who served 26 years before paroling from San Quentin nearly two years ago. Gonsoulin said that some people have negative expectations about what they will see in prisons because of misleading information in the media, but that “people visit prison and their entire perspectives are changed for the better.”
“We have the value in prison, because we have the time to work on ourselves and get it together, if we choose,” said Gonsoulin.