Ritual of Care: Screening My Film Inside a Women's Prison

A film festival held its first event outside San Quentin Rehabilitation Center and its first inside a women’s prison at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. A documentary short, Oscar’s Return, was screened in front of 300 incarcerated women. The program included women-in-film and filmmaker panels with industry figures and moderators, plus a jury drawn from the festival’s industry network. Coordination between inside and outside teams was supported by prison leadership and public information staff. The event also featured screenplay and documentary pitch competitions, creating a shared space for incarcerated creators and industry heavyweights.

"The San Quentin Film Festival puts incarcerated filmmakers and audiences in the same room as industry heavyweights. Today's event was a curated program, the festival's first foray outside of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, and its first-ever event inside a women's prison. director Dee Rees sat on the women-in-film panel moderated by CCWF Journalism Guild member Lakisa "Kiki" Crowder. Emmy-winner W. Kamau Bell was set to moderate mine. The jury-drawn from the festival's industry network, built in part from co-founder Cori Thomas's years at Tribeca-included producer Christina Oh, writer-director Christine Swanson, and Song Sung Blue cinematographer Amy Vincent."

"I am here, in Chowchilla at the Central California Women's Facility-where I am to screen my documentary short, Oscar's Return , in front of 300 incarcerated women. This is my second time visiting prison, my first visiting a women's prison, and I am on edge. Not because of the twenty-foot barbed-wire fences, or the watchful gaze of the prison guards, or the way I was just shuttled through two security checkpoints like cattle. I am on edge because I am here, in Chowchilla at the Central California Women's Facility-where I am to screen my documentary short, Oscar's Return , in front of 300 incarcerated women."

"Jesse Vasquez, executive director of the Pollen Initiative and a formerly incarcerated journalist, coordinated weekly between SQFF's inside and outside teams, with support from CCWF Warden Anissa De La Cruz and Public Information Officer Lt. Monique Williams, to make the day's programming possible. The festival also included a screenplay and documentary pitch compet"

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