HWFC & WAMC present
"The Visitors"
Food for Thought: An Evening of Socially Relevant Cinema
Thursday, April 15th,
6:00 PM reception
7:00 PM film
$6
6:00 PM reception
7:00 PM film
$6
Co-presented by the Honest Weight Food Co-op and WAMC's Documentary Film Series, Food For Thought is a monthly evening of food, film and discussion with a focus on films of social, political, environmental and community interest. Held on the third Thursday of each month, the night features food samples by Honest Weight Food Co-op, a feature film screening, and an open panel discussion.
About the film: In 1960, approximately 330,000 people were behind bars in USA. Since then, “three strikes” laws and “zero tolerance” policies wiped out many low level offenders. As a result America’s inmate population soared to 2.3 million having an enormous impact on the poor and minorities. There are now 70 prisons in New York State. Although 60 percent of all prisoners in New York State come from New York City, 95 percent of these prisons are located upstate, in remote rural towns and villages, like Attica, Dannemora, and Malone. Every Friday night about 800 people, mostly women and children, almost all of them African American and Latino, gather at Columbus Circle in Manhattan and board buses for the north. Depending on the destination, the whole visiting trip can take up to 25 hours. Most of the passengers make this trip every weekend for many years and in some cases decades.
The Visitors represent a unique and an under served community with common problems, joy and endeavors that has given birth to a subculture with habits, experience, dreams – and even a language – characteristics to themselves.
Guest panelists:
Dennis Mosley - Is a long-time community activist who has worked professionally and voluntarily promoting alternative sentencing and restorative justice models. Dennis also has a passion for the arts and independent film. In 2002, Dennis was a partner in Roots 2 Reels, a project dedicated to works by and about people of color and their allies. This endeavor brought four films to Albany Law School, including Litany for Survival about legendary poet Audre Lorde. The film series also brought the Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, Jonathan Stack (The Farm: Angola) to Albany to discuss his work. In 2003, Dennis partnered with other film enthusiasts to begin the Albany Independent Film Forum, a film series at the Albany Public Library. Two of the featured films of Albany Independent Film Forum that included discussions with the filmmakers were Big Pun: Still Not a Player, the raw and painful story of Christopher Rios, aka BIG PUNISHER, the first Latino hip-hop artist to go platinum, and Love and Diane, an unsentimental look into the lives of a family mired in the social welfare system.
Originally from the town of Hempstead on Long Island, Dennis has spent most of past thirty years in Albany, where he takes pride in raising his 10-year old daughter, Sierra.
Alison Coleman - Director and founder, created Prison Families of New York, Inc. as a response to her husband going to prison for 25 years to life for a non-violent crime. Incorporated in 1987, PFNY has developed from providing direct client services on a local basis to statewide organizing, policy advisement and advocacy on prison family and re-entry issues. During these years, Alison also worked for The Osborne Association in Brooklyn, NY running the first and only hotline in the nation for prison families. She has raised 2 children, worked with her husband, who was released in October, 2005, to keep their marriage and family intact, provides information and inspiration to prison families across the country and training (often with Jay and their daughter, Cecily), technical assistance and policy development to agencies, advocacy groups statewide and NYS government.
Judith Brink - Judith moved to Albany in 1999 to study at Albany Medical Center's Clinical Pastoral Care program, where a call to the hospital's Secure Unit late one night brought her face to face with an incarcerated young man and a system that seemed all wrong. For the past 5 years she has been the Director of Prison Action Network, a criminal justice and prison reform organization, She has been a promoter of The Visitors documentary since she first met the filmmaker in 2006, and presented a "rough cut" at Family Empowerment Day 3 in Albany in 2007, and a "next to a final edit" at Family Empowerment Day 4 in NYC in 2008. Many of those who attended those events had been visitors and some of them even appear in tonight's film. She dedicates her reform efforts to the memory of Ricky Philbert, the incarcerated man she met at Albany Med., who taught her that not everyone in prison belonged there, and that her true calling was in the struggle to correct the system. Visit http://prisonaction.blogspot.com for updates on issues of incarceration.
Charles LaCourt - Born and raised in the public housing projects of Spanish Harlem in New York City. Despite a loving family and catholic school education he became immersed into the hard core criminal lifestyle of New York City – selling drugs, robberies and a chronic heroin-cocaine addiction. This 28 year experience resulted in numerous arrests, four felony convictions for selling drugs and robbery; and three state prison sentences.
Since 1996 Charles has been drug free and crime free; he is a community activist in the city of Albany who works with youth, the formerly incarcerated and community empowerment.
Charles has been program manager for the AIDS Council of Northeastern New York’s Intensive Case Management Program, facilitated a father’s educational support group at Albany County Bright Beginnings Program, served as coordinator for the Center for Law and Justice’s Prevention and Empowerment Program (PREP) and been a clinical supervisor for Adolescent Employability Skills Program in Albany.
A recipient of the 2006 Phoenix Award from the NYS Hispanic Heritage Month Committee and the WFP 2007 Community Activist of the Year he co-founded ROOTS (Reentry Opportunities and Orientations Towards Success) which assists formerly incarcerated men and women to make a positive reentry back into their communities.
He is currently a Community Prosecution Coordinator at the Albany County District Attorney’s Office and sits on the NYS Reentry Advisory Group.
Info: http://www.wamcarts.org/artsched.html
The Linda, WAMC's Performing Arts Studio 339 Central Ave, Albany, NY
