The Institute of the Arts and Sciences at UC Santa Cruz is pleased to present “Documenting Justice,” a screening of short films curated by art professor Dee Hibbert-Jones UCSC, and filmmaker Nomi Talisman, followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers. The documentary films, which focus on prisons and justice, will be available to watch online April 30 through May 4. Advance registration is required for online access to view the films and attend the discussion. 

Register Here

About the Visualizing Abolition series:

This program is part of a series of virtual talks and events presented in conjunction with the exhibition Barring Freedom, co-organized by SJMA and UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS). The online events feature artists, activists, scholars, and others united by their commitment to the vital struggle for prison abolition and are coordinated by the IAS in collaboration with Professor Gina Dent, feminist studies, UC Santa Cruz.

Films

Huntsville Station, 2020, 14’
Jamie Meltzer and Chris Filippone
Every weekday, inmates are released from Huntsville State Penitentiary, taking in their first moments of freedom with phone calls, cigarettes, and quiet reflection at the Greyhound station up the block.

Beyond the Wire (working title), 2020, 15’
Ted Griswold
Former Army Ranger Chris Pesqueira experiences freedom after 33 years at Soledad State Prison in California. He leans into a community of formerly incarcerated veterans for support as he takes his first steps back into society.

What Happened to Dujuan Armstrong?, 2020, 19’
Lucas Guilkey
When a young man mysteriously dies in a Bay Area jail, his mother begins a determined quest to find out what happened to him, but quickly runs into the opaque and powerful position of American sheriffs.

Laps, 2015, 17’
R.J. Lozada
The San Quentin 1000 Mile Running Club is a group of men incarcerated at California's historical San Quentin State Prison who find temporary solace in long distance running. Laps captures a regular training day in the recreation yard.

The Box, 2021, 16' 
James Burns, Shal Ngo
The Box is a hybrid short film immersing audiences in the realities of solitary confinement through interviews with three people, one of whom is the film’s director, who spent a combined 9 years in solitary.

About

Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman are collaborative filmmakers whose animated short documentary Last Day of Freedom was awarded a Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust Award, the California Public Defenders Association Gideon Award, a Northern California Emmy, Best Short at the International Documentary (IDA) Awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award. Their films have been supported by the IDA Enterprise Fund grant, NEA, Cal Humanities Documentary Project Grant, and the Pacific Pioneer Fund, among others. Hibbert-Jones and Talisman are Guggenheim Fellows, MacDowell Colony Fellows, Creative Capital awardees and recipients of the Filmmakers Award from The Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University. They are currently residents at SFFilmHouse. They live and work in San Francisco, CA.

Visualizing Abolition is organized by UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences in collaboration with San José Museum of Art and Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery. The series has been generously funded by the Nion McEvoy Family Trust, Ford Foundation, Future Justice Fund, Wanda Kownacki, Peter Coha, James L. Gunderson, Rowland and Pat Rebele, Porter College, UCSC Foundation, and annual donors to the Institute of the Arts and Sciences.

Partners include: Howard University School of Law, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, Jessica Silverman Gallery, Indexical, The Humanities Institute, University Library, University Relations, Institute for Social Transformation, Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, Porter College, the Center for Cultural Studies, the Center for Creative Ecologies, and Media and Society, Kresge College