Join us for a screening of Across the Walls followed by discussion: 2nd Chances Keep Us Safer
February 18, 2pm -4pm, Saturday
Carnegie Museum of Art Theater
4400 Forbes Avenue | Pittsburgh, PA
Access Notes: Wheelchair accessible. Captions on film. Wear a mask. This event is Free.
2nd Chances Keep Us Safer – Film and Panel Discussion
Long prison sentences are not keeping us safe! Join us for a big screen viewing of Across the Walls A film featuring Avis Lee and Paulette Carrington were released from life sentences after each serving over 40 years. This panel following the film will invite you to consider how second chances can actually make our communities safer, more loving and collectively thriving. Hear the stories of people who are doing just that, returning citizens who are building pathways home for the people they left behind and what impact they’re making for us all.
Speakers:
Ricky Olds, Executive Director of the House of Life
Richard Garland, Executive Director of ReImagine Reentry
Terri Minor Spencer founder of Colorful Backgrounds EXPO
Across the Walls: 20 minutes
Filmed and Edited by Njaimeh Njie
Film Screening 2 – 2:20pm
Panel Discussion 2:30- 3:30pm
Reception with Light Refreshments – 3:30- 4pm
Across the Walls is a documentary film that offers an intimate glimpse into the experiences of women sentenced to life in prison without parole in the state of Pennsylvania. After decades of activism and community building, recently Avis Lee and Paulette Carrington were released from life sentences after each serving over 40 years. As they adjust to life outside, they’ve kept their focus on organizing to end life without parole, and helping the women they left inside be released.
The film stages a conversation between Avis and Paulette on the outside, and five women who are still on the inside. Using interviews, found footage, and landscape cinematography, the film assembles a story about the women’s interior lives, against the backdrop of spaces they’ve inhabited and spaces they’ve been taken away from. Never straying from the women’s points of view, Across the Walls is a meditation on memory, and manifestations for a free future.