Calls from Home and Voices from Within

Screening presented by Study and Struggle with Dean Spade.

A free screening of two short documentary films about the devastating impact of imprisonment, followed by a community discussion with organizer Dean Spade and information on the campaign to Free the Mississippi 5.

The Mississippi 5 are a group of women who were sentenced to life with the possibility of parole during the “Tough on Crime”-era of the late 1980s and early 1990s. They have collectively been denied parole 47 times and imprisoned for 171 years.

Calls from Home (Sylvia Ryerson, 2023) is an intimate portrait of rural prison expansion which documents a longstanding radio show that sends familial messages of love over public airwaves to reach people incarcerated in Central Appalachia.

Voices from Within (Pacific Street Films, 1977) was produced in collaboration with a group of long-term prisoners at Bedford Hills in New York and dramatizes the experiences of incarcerated women and the impact of their captivity on their families.