“Every good story has a problem,” explains Flo Stack, a former reading specialist who founded Turning Pages, a literacy and family reunification program for fathers who are incarcerated at the Baltimore County Detention Center (BCDC) and their families. Across the United States, right now, 2.7 million children have a parent who's incarcerated. In addition to the anxiety from being separated, financial and childcare strains can cause the loss of a home or car, the need to move or change schools, resulting in further destabilization for the family. And for the children whose dads are inmates at the BCDC, there are few opportunities to have contact visitation with them. In general, interaction is through glass – until Turning Pages provided the opportunity for fathers and their children to read together in a shared physical space, hugging each other, and doing crafts. Through a series of fathers’ workshops, the dads learn the importance of reading to children, how to pick out appropriate reading-level books, how to use stories as a gateway to life discussions, and how to use inflection to make the stories more dynamic to their listening children. And through the alternating family nights, the fathers are able to reassure their children and reinforce their role as parents.

Nominated for a regional Emmy, the “Book By Its Cover” documentary follows the experience of fathers as they participate in the Turning Pages program, detail what led to their incarceration, share how it feels to be separated from their families, and tell how this program is making a difference in their lives as they look to the future.   The full film can be seen here.

 

Four elderly nuns feel so strongly about closing the School of the Americas (now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) that they put their own freedom at risk. In fact, as a result of their peaceful protest, they are sentenced to six months in a federal prison.

This 2003 Student Academy Award-winning film by Renee Fischer follows their journey. It was screened at the DC Independent Film Festival and the United Nations Association Film Festival. The full film can be viewed here.

Shot on 16mm film, this independent short film which premiered at the Maryland Film Festival and Cinequest subtly examines our throw-away society as some people discard turtles purchased when they were 15 grams, not realizing they would grow to be more than 100 pounds, or abandon them at the vet's office when they need care because they are “only a turtle.” In addition to meeting others who respond by establishing sanctuaries for these forgotten pets, we also see the personalities and intelligence of these creatures which have been around for 200 million years, but now have half of their species in danger of extinction due to interference by mankind. This film screened at the Maryland Film Festival, Artscape, Cinequest, and the Jacksonville Film Festival. It can be viewed at this link.