(violin playing) - These are the stories that move us, the stories that guide us, and the stories that reflect our community.

Filmed in our neighborhoods and local haunts by those who call this city home.

Atlanta filmmakers are documenting stories that show the life of our city in a way we could only imagine.

These are the stories that we tell.

This is Atlanta On Film.

(violin music) - Hi, I'm your host, Bobby Huntley, and this is Atlanta On Film, WABE's weekly film series featuring a collection of stories that reflect our diverse community.

In this episode, we address societal and systemic issues that plague our communities.

From facing covert and ingrained racism, in Harrison Chandler's "Perception," to taking a microscope to our correctional system with Hal Jacobs and Janine Solursh in "Common Good, Breaking Down the Walls of Mass Incarceration."

We'll observe many qualities about our society that deserve to be addressed.

But before we get into that let's take a moment to understand how our partners at the Morehouse Human Rights Film Festival continue their mission of bringing our films to our city.

(upbeat music) The Morehouse Human Rights Film Festival is a compilation of films from around the globe that tackle some of the toughest concepts and shed light on humanitarian efforts and successes.

- I am the executive director for the Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival.

I started this journey about six years ago.

So what I had at my disposal was absolutely nothing.

(chuckling) I grew up in rural North Carolina.

My mother signed me up for a a book club and every month I would look forward to that box of books that would come to the house.

When I first went to the movies I was like, wow, this is, this is great.

This is, this is something different.

This is making everything that I've read in the books come to life.

This is what, this is where it's at.

(chuckling) This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Go to the movies.

(jazz bass playing) I wonder if there's a human rights film festival.

I knew about other film festivals but I wonder if there's just a human rights film festival.

There was so much going on in the world.

At the top of 2019, I finally got an audience with our new president at the time, Dr. Thomas, Dr. David Thomas, and so I pitched him the idea of a human rights film festival.

And he said, "well, what are you waiting for?"

- [Bobby] Led by two intrepid women, Kara Walker and Jenn Sapp, this emerging film festival aims to bring people together through their love of film and human rights activism.

- The Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival fulfills a very specific role in the city of Atlanta.

We're a film festival that supports not only independent filmmakers, but filmmakers who are making films specifically about human rights and social justice.

- This is where discourse happens that is meant to illuminate and to educate and to shift perspectives, and open the mind to opportunities that may not exist unless you are on a college campus, and because it's Morehouse.

- The potential outreach that the film festival has through the films that we receive is incredible.

We receive films from all over the globe and with that comes people who travel here to Atlanta.

And when they come to Atlanta they're having conversations with people who are a part of not only the Atlanta film community, but who live and work and play in Atlanta.

- The Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival hosts a plethora of different types of panels and workshops for attendees to participate in.

Some of the people who have participated in the Human Rights Film Festival include Spike Lee, who is a Morehouse alum, Omari Hardwick, Nate Parker.

They come and they bring their whole selves to the festival.

They are ready to network with our faculty and speak to the students and any of the filmmakers who are present, because the Human Rights Film Festival has such a heart-centered mission.

The panelists show up with that same approach and personality, and they are just welcome to share stories.

Bringing producers in that are behind some of the big shows on television, it allows for them to become real people, and not just names and a credit.

I feel like it's important to bring them to Morehouse also so that they can stay connected to the community.

- [Bobby] The goal of the Morehouse Human Rights Film Festival is to educate and expand awareness of social justice issues, both nationally and globally.

To generate conversation and dialogue around civil and human rights and to inspire innovative and creative new approaches to social change.

- The moving image is a powerful tool because not only can it entertain, but it also has the ability to educate, and the power to change hearts and minds.

What we're looking for are projects that meet at the intersection of art and activism.

- It makes me feel very, very connected to Atlanta, connected to here, this campus here, this historical campus.

Martin Luther King went to this school.

He was about civil rights and setting people free.

And then this film, the theme of these documentaries about really helping people to be set free.

- Very critical topics being explored here, with some some bright young talent.

Always like to see how bright young talent is portraying things.

(playful chimes playing) - What I found too, is that human rights topics are not, they're not the sexy topics.

And human rights filmmakers don't often get an opportunity to showcase their work to large audiences.

They don't often make it to Hollywood.

They don't often make it to distribution.

- The most important thing is, is that conversations are being had, connections are being made, and people who ordinarily wouldn't meet one another are meeting one another.

And they're learning from each other and they're able to take the experience that they had at our festival and take it back home with them to work and develop friendships.

And it's just, it's such a beautiful thing that our film festival has created a space that's safe, diverse, and inclusive.

(upbeat music playing) - The filmmakers who are a part of the festival have become my life.

The patrons who are a part of the festival have become a big part of my life.

And I'm gonna stick with this until this festival is you know, the best human rights film festival in the world, and that many people know about it, that it's something that will be a lasting legacy not only for Morehouse, but for Atlanta.

(upbeat music) (reel clicking) (beeping) - The Morehouse Human Rights Film Festival is such an impactful organization, and a great place to bring people together from all walks of life.

That's why this first film is the perfect story to kick things off.

In Harrison Chandler's "Perception," we follow a single mother who has recently left a world filled with racism, as she transitions with a young daughter into a more culturally diverse world.

This is "Perception."

(film projector clicking) (beeping) (gentle music) (gentle music) (book thumping) (gentle music) - Sit up.

(cups clicking) (shoes thumping) - Go ahead Jess.

Choose whichever one you'd like.

(suspenseful music) (suspenseful music) (fabric rustling) (binder zipping) (footsteps) - [Mother] Come on sweetie.

(door shutting) (footsteps) - [radio announcer] A group of reformed ex-offenders and former gang members have united in their efforts to a pact, the "Spread the Love Challenge" in order to continue increasing the peace, in their Brooklyn neighborhoods.

- We were part of the problem.

These is the facts.

We perpetuated it, we promoted it, we pushed it.

So now we are part of the solution.

(traffic sounds) - Yeah.

- "Yes, I love your dress."

" Oh, thank you, yours too."

- Yeah.

- "Yeah, I love your hair today."

- Presentation ready by Monday.

- Got it.

(receiver clicking) Ass hole.

- "Love your hair, did you get it done?"

"Yeah."

- [TV Announcer] The winner is.

- The winner is.

(singing) - [Together] Brandy!

(TV crowd cheering) - Mommy, I want to be just like Brandy when I grow up.

(background TV noise) - [Brandy] First of all, I'd like to thank God.

I want to thank my mom and dad, my brother Ray J, you will be up here one day.

- Yeah?

- [Brandy] Atlantic Records, Darryl Williams, Sylvia Rhone Richard Nash, Ron Shapiro.

- Think you got what it takes?

- Oh yeah.

- Okay, let's see what you got.

- [Brandy] - Video Retail Press Video.

Susan, Chucky, all of my dancers, Boyz II Men.

(Mom and child laughing) - Love you, thank you.

(TV crowd cheering) (Mother laughing) - Look at this.

- Yes, ha.

- I think you're gonna be a big star.

(Jess laughing) How about you go wash up so we can eat, okay?

- Okay.

- Wow, really artistic shot.

- No, he just dropped his change.

(changing channel clicks) - We're here at the International Religious Freedom Award ceremony in our nation's capital, where we bring you a story of love and courage for a Muslim man who risked his own life to save 262 Christians from certain death during the raid by (indistinct).

We take you to the ceremony live, where our hero is being honored.

- The award given to advocates of religious freedom is presented to Imam Abdullah Oglethorpe, in recognition of his extraordinary bravery.

Thank you for putting your faith into action.

(audience applauding) (ominous music playing) (concert music playing) (keyboard clicking) ("Baby" playing) ♪ Let me hear ya say yeah ♪ ♪ Baby baby baby baby ♪ ♪ Don't you know that you're so fine ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ Baby, baby, baby, baby ♪ ♪ Think about you all the time ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ (doorbell rings) ♪ I guess it's time to say, baby, baby ♪ (footsteps and door opens) - Hi.

- Jess, how you doin'?

Made it.

(tense dramatic music) - Come on.

(camera clicking) - Oh, um, okay, bye.

(door slams) (eerie music) (keys clicking, bell ringing) - It was here in Southeast Houston on Tuesday morning where an SUV struck a police cruiser, trapping two officers inside.

(whooshing) The vehicle then began to catch fire when a legal immigrant, Juan Carlos Salgado, pulled the officers from the flaming vehicle, saving their lives.

Today we caught up with Mr. Salgado.

His message is simple and clear.

We are all one.

- I did what any person should have done.

How you going to leave a person in need?

We're all one people, regardless where we're from.

[TV announcer in background] - [Jess] Mom we really appreciate you coming to our home for Christmas.

- Swell.

Everything looks wonderful, Jess.

You cooked a wonderful meal.

- Thank you.

Ken and I have some good news.

Actually it's great news.

We're having a baby.

- Are you sure?

- Yes, we're sure.

We've known for a few weeks now and wanted to tell you at the right time.

- And this is it, Jess?

Is this the right time?

- Mom, I thought you would be.

- What, did you both think that I'd be happy?

(dramatic note playing) This isn't right.

The two of you together isn't right.

(coughing loudly) (Mother inhaling) (utensils clinking) (Mother coughing) (Ken pushing chair) (footsteps) (plates clacking) - [TV Host] Everyone can get involved.

- [Co-Host] The problem may be too involved.

Some argue that players are so hypnotized, by these- (plates clattering) (Mother gasping) - that they have little time for anything else.

- [TV Host] I have mixed emotions.

I've been looking at- (Mother gasping, weeping) And I have young kids and... (gasping) (Mother sighing) - Emily Naples, a woman who spent 10 months behind bars is now seeking a second chance.

After entering a guilty plea for drug smuggling, it was in prison when she then found what she referred to as incarceration inspiration, which led to her starting her own popcorn business.

What she's calling it?

"Cons and Kernels."

- In prison I came to the conclusion that the mistakes I had made, weren't going to impact my future.

Now I finally know where my life is going and I want to help other ex-convicts discover their path as well.

(eerie music) (heart beats) (eerie music) (heart beats) (eerie music) - We're going to grandma's.

(door shutting) (gravel crunching and birds chirping) (door opening) Come on, princess, ha ha.

(grass crunching) (footsteps) (door opening) (footsteps) (sighing together) - All right, come here, baby.

(footsteps) - I love you Nana.

- Ken, can you come here?

Thank you.

(soft music) (Woman sniffs) Thank you for changing my perception.

- Thank you.

(soft music) ♪ Breathe in this life ♪ ♪ Take a second do it twice ♪ ♪ Your roots they will dig ♪ ♪ Your flowers will bloom ♪ (long beep) - Action.

- Reformed former gang members from all over are coming together in this Spread The Love challenge to increase the peace.

- [Both Men] We were part of the problem.

This is the facts.

We perpetuated it.

We promoted it.

We pushed it.

So now we are part of the solution.

(long beep) - [Presenter 1] Is presented to Imam Abubakar Abdullahi, in recognition of this extraordinary faith.

- [Presenter 2] Your extraordinary bravery and for putting your faith into action.

- [Director] Action.

- I did what any person should have done.

How could you leave a person in need?

We all one people, regardless where we're from.

(long beep) - [Lady In Red] I reframed this.

I didn't glamorize it, I reframed it in my own head as a sabbatical, as a way for me to, that I'm being forced to take time off to change my habits and build something different and productive.

♪ This perception of life can make us often forget ♪ ♪ So just breathe it in ♪ - Hey everybody, my name is Bobby Huntley.

I am your host, and I am sitting here along with Harrison Chandler, the writer and director of Perception.

Harrison, how are you doing today?

- I'm good, man.

How you doing?

- I'm great.

Thank you so much for coming.

- Excited to be here.

- Now, Perception, just the name alone, it just makes your mind go in several different ways.

What was the reasoning behind this film?

What gave you the inspiration?

- Well, I mean the title itself, so like, this was a crazy time in our country.

There was a lot of controversy going on and as what people call "fake news".

So I started like dissecting the ideology of like why people think a certain way, and really it just dawned on me that a lot of things that people see is how they feel and that response is sort of like what they believe.

So the idea of Perception is like your perception is your reality.

So as you know, through the film, we're sort of dissecting like what the main actor is seeing as compared to what her reality is.

So that's sort of the overview of like why we developed perception as well as what I was going through at the time.

- One of the most interesting moments at the beginning of the film was the young white child choosing a Black doll.

Can you gimme the significance of that scene?

- So it's a lot of significance.

So as a child, you know everybody as you know when you like go into the playground if you put a bunch of diverse children out there they're gonna end up playing with each other.

So as children we haven't adapted the hate, we haven't really started succumbing to societal norms yet.

So at the beginning of the film you're seeing this white child who isn't really aware of racism yet decide to choose a Black doll.

So the thought process about that is, as you know like the film, it ages over time, but we're seeing at the beginning this simple person, a simple mind choosing something that she's just interested in just because.

- So another aspect throughout the film that I definitely enjoyed was how you interspersed pop culture, news.

Can you gimme some of your decision making between that you got clips of Brandy, and you recreated actual news clips, which is a joy to find out towards the end.

So gimme more insight on those decisions.

- Well, definitely, I'm all about the world you build in the film, right?

So we wanted to create a world that we thought was authentic as well as something that I believed resonated to my audience, right?

So as we know, Brandy's a household name.

So with her, it was pretty much a no-brainer.

You know, she was kinda Beyonce before Beyonce.

So, I wanted to really show that time period, it was nineties so it was really cool to see her win that award, and it just worked perfect with the timeline that the film was already aligned with.

So yeah.

So throughout the film we are aging her and we're going through a bunch of different pop cultural norms.

So we wanted people to identify with one, it was in Atlanta, right?

So you saw the Atlanta Olympics at a certain time period.

But as well as like, we wanted our audience in a short film to identify quickly where they were in the timeframe.

So, you know, we use pop cultural norms, societal norms that they could quickly identify and then be like, "Okay, I'm drawn into the world".

- So this is an Atlanta production for you, correct?

- Yes.

So this was an Atlanta, this was a Georgia thing.

- All right.

- Yes.

- But with your position in the Atlanta film community, what has been your relationship with Atlanta and the creators that are here that are doing storytelling on their own terms?

- So, Atlanta is my home, right?

So it's very important that I feed into my community and find ways to give back to people that were in my position.

I have deep roots here and it's definitely, I'm just trying to find opportunities to continue to create, because for me it was a little bit harder, right?

You know, I had to like branch out.

I had to go to New York, I had to go to L.A., I had to go to various film festivals all across the United States to get my voice heard.

So my whole mission now is to figure out ways that people in Atlanta can just have a straight green light to Hollywood.

They don't have to do as much work as I had to do to where they can start their career a little bit earlier.

So I'm a part of that generation of Atlanta to where we're breaking into L.A., there's a few of us but we're all kind of rising at the same time.

So it's pretty exciting to kinda see where we go and how we can kinda feed back into Atlanta to create our own Hollywood of the South, as they call it.

- Awesome.

So projecting towards your future, where do you see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years?

- I mean next year I'm doing my first independent feature film right?

- Hey.

- So I'm pretty excited about that.

I'm excited to kind of really take the leap and invest with other potential investors and sort of do it myself.

I have various development deals with studios all out in L.A., so I'm excited about those projects but I'm just tired of waiting, right?

So in the next five years, I'm hoping to have a premiere of my own project and maybe even an acquisition at a festival or something like that of something that I've self-funded and produced.

Because it's about like, I don't wanna own everything but I do wanna go ahead and take that risk and put my own money into something that I believe in.

- So the news pieces were expertly recreated.

I love how you show side by side comparisons with the actual news, with your version of the news work.

I mean, even with the acting and the lines was like line by line verbatim, you matched everything up very well.

What was the process with that?

- Very strategic process, right?

So it was important for us to show people who aren't traditionally portrayed in the news correctly.

So we had in my scene, it was gang bangers giving back and I actually acted in that scene.

I'm not sure if you could see but I kind of transformed my face a little bit.

But yeah, so it's gang bangers giving back to the community in New York, right?

And then the next scene is like an African Muslim person.

He like saved like 200 Christians and hid them in his house.

But it continued, like the next scene was like an illegal immigrant saving a police officer's life.

So all of it was just situations that for people that are normally not portrayed in the right way, or not in the right way, but normally portrayed in a certain way in the news.

And then for me to change that perception and portray actual events that happen.

These are true events that weren't really covered in the news because it doesn't consist with that normal bias that the news is contributing to, on a daily basis.

- [TV Announcer 1] Really artistic shot.

- [TV Announcer 2] No, he just dropped his change.

- We're here at the International Religious Freedom Award ceremony in our nation's capitol where we bring you a story of love and courage for a Muslim man who risked his own life to save 262 Christians from certain death during the raid by herdsmen.

We take you to the ceremony live where our hero is being honored.

- The award given to advocates of Religious Freedom is presented to Imam Abdullahi Abubakar in recognition of his extraordinary bravery.

Thank you for putting your faith into action.

(audience clapping) - So what would you want the general audience, the viewer, to walk away with, with this film?

- Like their bias, I want them to change, I mean, not even change.

I want them to understand that they have biases, right?

So I wanted to really uncover all the biases that we have as a society, and start really examining them and thinking about what we're programming in our minds.

So for me, I want people to watch this film and really start to think and examine what they're consuming, and what they're processing, and how that's feeding into their beliefs.

How is that feeding into the way they live, and how is that feeding into how they treat other people, so yeah.

- Harrison Chandler, thank you so very much for bringing your awesome film "Perception" onto our show.

- Thank you for having me.

- No problem.

We had a great time with you and we can't wait to see what you do in the very near future.

- [Harrison] Appreciate it.

- And as for you, our viewer, I am your host, Bobby Huntley and you have been watching Atlanta On Film.

We'll see you again very soon.

In this documentary produced by Hal Jacobs, a Georgia Southern literature teacher brings her knowledge and passion into our state's prison system to help incarcerated students, find an intellectual freedom while providing instructors a stimulating environment to teach the liberal arts.

This is, "Common Good Atlanta Breaking Down the Walls of Mass Incarceration."

(film projector clicking) (beeping) (gentle music) (choir singing) (gentle music) (choir singing) ♪ I believe in empty ♪ ♪ I believe in luck ♪ - [Hal] Do you remember when we were trying to decide what to call the program?

That was many, many months of discussions before we came up with Common Good Atlanta.

It was the two of us and we were working with all the guys at Phillip State.

And so they made a list of a hundred potential names for the program.

Remember?

It just went on and on.

And one thing was we weren't sure whether to put the word "prison" in it or not.

And then at Phillips State said, "Yeah, put it in, most of them wanted it in".

And I think ultimately we decided that we would prefer to not have the word "prison" in there because we had worked with some children in downtown Atlanta and we always wanted to do the downtown class.

- [Man] Right?

- And the downtown class didn't have to be restricted to people who had served a sentence or had been directly impacted by the criminal legal system.

(gentle piano music) And so I think that you and I were always the most excited about crossing borders of any kind.

Not necessarily just prison walls and concertina wire but figuring out who's interested in the humanities and then how can we make sure that the humanities can reach those people.

And so we finally decided on Common Good.

- [Man] Yeah, I think that's exactly right.

Crossing borders and breaking down walls.

That's really a big theme I think that we've been exploring, trying to make real with each class, each essay, each piece of writing, each piece of reading.

- [Female Announcer] Here's our finalists.

We have Common Good Atlanta, Draw The Line.

- [Hal] So our review committee was very impressed with Common Good.

And one of the things they noticed was, of course, that the professors volunteer their time to do this, that the number of professors that have joined this effort is really impressive.

And just the fact that there's real on-the-ground impact and that it's growing every day.

(brass band playing) (brass band playing) (girl laughing) (brass band and conversations) - So I'm Tariq Baiyina, as he said, I'm an alum and I'm on the board now.

Common Good Atlanta.

So shout out to that.

(audience applause) I'm an alum because I was in prison.

I know I don't look like it, kinda sharp tonight but I spent a little time in prison.

I spent 15 years in prison.

Yeah, yeah.

The majority of that time was like dead time, you know.

They took college program, the Pell Grant.

They took all of that out of prison back in the nineties.

So you have this culture in prison now that it was worse than it was 10, 20, 30 years ago, at least you could get an education.

Now you gotta fight for it.

And we got people like Sarah and Bill, and all of the professors associated with Common Good Atlanta coming into the prison on their own dime.

You know, a lot of 'em volunteer (audience cheering) (audience clapping) Coming in and bringing that back to the people because I don't know about you, but I believe in second chances.

- What is really striking to me about Common Good Atlanta is I've watched the faculty of Common Good Atlanta.

And as I've watched, its purpose is unlike some prison education.

When you are done with Common Good Atlanta you don't have a necessarily permission to engage in a particular trade or practice that is going to earn you money.

You don't have necessarily a degree or a diploma in front of you that will open doors that prior to this time would not have been opened.

You don't have that.

But what you do have as an incarcerated person who has taken a course in Common Good Atlanta, what you do have is a new mind.

I think you have the beginnings of a new mind.

So this whole notion of thinking and discussing, folks, this is one of the more radical things that can happen in any society particularly when you don't have to be a member of the aristocracy, which used to be.

You didn't go to you Oxford College or the Sorbonne because you were from some farm out in the countryside.

No, you went because you were a part of the elite of that society.

We're talking about 1 or 2% of the whole population, maybe a half a percent of the whole population.

So the humanities were the best kept secret.

One of the other things that I think people realized is, particularly if you're with the aristocracy, you gotta keep it a secret.

You teach people to read, you're gonna be in a world of trouble.

Right?

We know that.

Read books?

Oh Lord.

I mean, you know, they're not, I mean, what will they do next?

That's a very good word by the way.

What will they do next?

- When you went into that classroom, there was no more prison.

It was like a world away from it.

- It was a form of liberation because I look forward for it every week.

And it took me out of my, where I was at, it took me beyond the walls.

- The avenues and the things that I had suppressed, that I have forgotten about, things about how I used to love to read, how I used to love to write.

And I forgot about those things because just life, you know, it allowed me to tap into those hidden areas in my life, and then to enhance them.

Most of all, I started to like me again.

(laughing) I forgot who I was.

- So like from all the classes you took is there like a favorite you had or when that was like you took the most away from?

- We did take a philosophy class and at first I hated it.

I mean, it was like, I just was so tired of asking why.

Like why this?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

And I was like, come on, can we just like stop, stop.

But it's probably the class that I took the most out of.

It kinda changed the way that I view academics and like see the world.

- When Common Good came and they were like, "Hey listen, this class is coming, would you like to be a part of it?"

I was like, are you kidding me right now?

Like honestly, at first it was hard for me to get my hopes up because like there's always talk about things potentially happening and then it falls through for whatever reason.

But the first day, I was like, I had butterflies like the best first date ever.

And I'd swear every week I dressed up, it was my fancy Friday, and I'd put my makeup on, and do my hair every week, and I was so excited about going to class.

And at the end of it or when I got, when I left to go to T.C., I honestly like tearing up, choking up.

Like so grateful to have the opportunity to remove yourself from prison for three hours every week.

And to like be reminded that like, let's see if you're really smart, you have something to offer and like your writing is good, people outside think it's good.

One of the first things that I fell in love with about the Clemente course was Sarah Higinbotham.

She was my first professor and she was the first person I met that was involved.

And she has such like an excited light, you're like, this is gonna be fantastic and it really was.

(gentle music) - [Sarah] People that are involved in Common Good Atlanta, both those on the inside and those on the outside, have the force of human dignity.

I think we also have the force of awe, of a transcendental experience of confronting a work of art or an idea or a philosophy that transcends your current frame of reference.

That's a powerful emotion that draws people together and simultaneously draws them out of themselves.

- Most people are brought in by Sarah's and Bill's charisma and passion and the way they talk about what they do.

- Their leadership and their intellectual energy has created an environment in which all of us are excited to be together, excited to learn from them, excited to learn from the men scholars.

So they cultivate what makes the program so powerful, and then the men scholars thrive in the space that they create.

- Now, it's just a place where you wanna be around the other people who are doing this work.

I got my PhD in 2013, Stony Brook University, and I was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at Georgia Tech.

I started the same year that Sarah Higinbotham did and so she was inviting various people who had expressed, various people in the program who expressed interest to come out to Phillips State Prison, which was the only location at that time.

In fact, Common Good hadn't been... - [GPS] Take the first right onto Canton Place, Southeast.

- It wasn't called Common Good then.

It was just Sarah and Bill teaching in Phillips State Prison.

(Lauren chuckles) And so... - [GPS] Make a U-turn.

- [Lauren] Wow, that's up close and personal.

- [Bill] In many ways, Sarah, you took us back to a future and down that trail of unknowns because there just was no more higher education in prison community back when you started.

It was just a wasteland.

So what was that like?

Just trying to blaze that trail or just to start that process back up.

- [Sarah] I think we were just doing what we loved doing, which was teaching and talking a lot about literature and writing and doing it with people who inspired us.

I don't think we knew there was a path or that there was a course or a goal.

One of the things that was so exciting about the work, particularly early on, was that we were being inspired by our students.

We were having just a great time.

- [Bill] So I thought the whole thing was really a great art project where we would just be, you know, kind of getting out of the way so something else could get into the space.

The whole thing was a very John Cage.

We removed intention from our work so the work itself could declare its intention.

(people chattering) - Man, good to see you again man.

- On this side.

- On this side!

- On this side of the joint.

- [Sarah] Then you started doing the book art and the book art was so new to me and so exciting to the guys at Phillip State Prison.

- Some of the books are on display downstairs and I think one of the concepts behind the project was creating a project that would allow all the men in the class to produce something that would have an impact outside of the prison classroom.

Well, I'd been teaching creative, non-fiction writing and creative writing, and we decided to create a set of handmade books and they were just so, so beautiful and conveyed so much truth, that year in 2012, we then proceeded to do it till 2016.

Over the course of those years the men produced a one of a kind rare book library.

(tonal music and sound effects) (tonal music and sound effects) - [Sarah] You remember what Noey did?

He didn't want the three hole punch look.

- [Bill] When does he get out?

When is he gonna get out?

- Thursday.

He's leaving from the parking lot to drive to Chicago with his parents.

(people cheer and applaud) (background conversation) - What's up guys?

(people laugh and cheer) - [Woman] We love you Noey!

(bag rustles) - [Noey] I borrowed this like, I don't know, six years ago.

(woman laughs) (Noey laughs) - Six years ago!

- I couldn't do it.

(crowd laughs and chatters) - [Noey] I didn't think you were going to make it man.

- [Bill] Here you go.

- [Noey] Oh shit, Bill.

- Wanna get in there with him?

(dramatic orchestral music) - [Sarah] Hey - Hey.

- [Sarah] Okay, say something.

Let me see if I have it doing.

- ♪ Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do ♪ - [Sarah] I am in Chicago, we just need some deep dish pizza.

- It's pie.

Excuse me, but we're filming.

Well, they put my phone on whatever it is.

How do you make the emoji face?

Oh, I still don't really know how to work one of these things.

- So you don't have to look at the camera, I think.

I think you don't wanna look at the camera.

- That one?

(Sarah laughs) The ink was everything from Kool-Aid to crushed up pieces of colored pencil that I melted down and added floor wax to.

The brushes I made out of toothbrushes that I had to heat up with homemade prison fire and bend into the proper shape and everything.

Front and back cover are actually one large piece.

It's one wall, it's one prison.

When you put a visual to an emotion, at least for me, it was very therapeutic in a sense.

Not so much that I was able to let go of the sense of dread or anything, but at least I understood it better, you know?

Just the drippy dried colors, they're all representative of that same emotion but the graffiti in itself, it's a sense of liberation.

It's something that's not supposed to be there.

It's something that's not really understood in traditional graffiti and in stuff that you see on the walls and stuff.

Not permission murals and stuff like that, but guys and girls that go out there, put their mark in the world illegally, it's a statement, you know?

And for me it was, back in the day it was me, I am here, I exist.

There is a reason why this is here.

I wasn't a statistic at that point anymore.

I wasn't just a number.

I wasn't a faceless tally mark on someone's page.

(gentle music) - [Sarah] We as a people have predetermined ideas about what kinds of people are convicted of crimes but you can't walk into one of our classrooms and sit and discuss Kafka or Dostoevsky or Solzhenitsyn or Shakespeare or Milton or Mary Shelley and not recognize the shared humanity among all of us.

When I was in my late twenties, I had an uncle who was incarcerated two different times both for drug related violent charges and growing up he had been the fun uncle.

He had been the one who taught me to water ski and drive.

And so...

When he was released from prison the second time, he died shortly thereafter, and I felt like I never had the chance to make sure that he knew I had not given up on him.

At about the time that he died, I heard a podcast on NPR.

It was with Jack Hitt and Ira Glass.

I'm sure many people have heard it.

It was about an acting hamlet inside a high security prison.

(dramatic music) And I thought if I ever had the chance, that's what I would do on behalf of people like my Uncle Mike, to make sure that they knew that the community had not given up on them.

So, in 2008 when I was teaching at Georgia State University and working on my PhD, I asked Georgia State if they would allow me to also teach a class at a prison.

And at the time I thought a lot of people were doing that.

It turns out there wasn't an existing program but I wrote to about 14 different wardens and at that time Warden Tim Ward, who's now Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Tim Ward, answered my letter and invited me to come and talk to him at Phillips State Prison.

And he agreed to allow me to teach a class, just as I would teach a world literature class at Georgia State University.

And so that's how the program started.

It was really just gonna be one semester.

And that turned into two semesters which turned into two years until I met Bill Taft.

- I'm Bill Taft, co-director of Common Good Atlanta, and this is Dr. Sarah Higinbotham, the other co-director, leading light and visionary of Common Good Atlanta.

(cheering) (upbeat music) - I didn't know Bill was a badass like that.

Bill's a (bleep) badass.

(audience laughs) Yeah.

I mean, you see him in class and he's a timid, shy guy.

You know what I mean?

♪ Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.

♪ ♪ Don't care at all, ♪ ♪ Silent water, don't wanna go ♪ ♪ There's no elbow room.

♪ ♪ They're standing here ♪ (jazz music) ♪ Rehearse, rehearse, ♪ ♪ All the way to the curse, ♪ ♪ Some metaphor, ♪ ♪ Some with their fingers ♪ ♪ That'll learn ya, that'll learn ya, ♪ ♪ Don't let the eyes pass by.

♪ - I didn't really know anything about mass incarceration but I saw a presentation by Sarah.

Sarah's a great presenter.

Once you see a presentation by Sarah, you're gonna want to help out.

She had a good experience and things worked out in her first class, so she decided to keep coming back.

And I had a good experience so I decided to keep coming back.

Once we get on the highway, we're going.

We're going the way no one else is going.

Everyone else is going that way, so this is very, this is a metaphor for Common Good Atlanta.

We go where the traffic isn't going.

- [Man] All right, let's go.

- [Sarah] Let's go.

- And action.

Who's there?

- Nay, answer me.

Stand and unfold yourself.

- Long live the King!

- Bernardo!

- He.

- We're gonna really look, we're gonna spend the next few minutes on these opening lines.

So first, nobody looking, first line of Hamlet?

- [All] Who's there?

- And then does Francisco answer him?

Does he say, oh, it's okay, it's me, it's Francisco?

Does he put him at ease?

No, he says what?

What does he say Jenny?

- Nay, answer me, stand and unfold yourself.

- Yeah.

Nay, answer me.

- Oh, okay, okay.

- Yeah, no, answer me.

Who are you?

No, who are you?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, right?

And then, nay answer me and then stand and unfold yourself.

(Sarah laughs) - That's so poetic.

- It is!

Why is it poetic?

- Because it's just, expose yourself, show me who you are.

- Yeah, yeah.

Unfold yourself and look how visual it is.

Right, right?

- Yeah, mm-hmm.

- Who's there?

Me, answer me.

Stand and... - Unfold yourself.

- Unfold yourself.

Reveal yourself.

But he doesn't say, give me your name, no.

That's its art.

That's why you can't read a summary either, right?

Stand and unfold yourself.

- I was engaged because they were engaged, right?

I mean, you can't feel enthused about a certain topic unless the facilitator is enthused and has passion for it.

So it, kind of like it's contagious.

You know for me, I'm like, wow, he's really, or she's really into this.

So I wonder what's so good about it.

Opposed to somebody, it's a part of their profession.

But yeah, Shakespeare.

(all laugh) Yeah, that's that, right?

- What brought me into this course?

'Cause I'm numb.

I'm just...

Ain't no drugs, alcohol any of that.

Sex, any of the vices can call.

- [Bill] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- And so I can only vent it out... literary.

You know what I'm saying?

Then seeing people incarcerated and just living the whole system itself.

Sometimes I wish I didn't know what I know.

That I know I know now.

It's different when you know something but when you know you know something?

I am invisible.

Like I have, my life parallels this.

I'm like, I live it.

I know people that live it.

It's a way of understanding how to walk on eggshells of society.

I was ignorant.

I can accept that, 'cause I know what ignorance is now.

I know it ain't mean, stupid, or dumb.

It just means you're not going to talk, it's just something, I didn't know that.

So I can accept that.

Reading all of these different pieces have helped show me that a lot of people are ignorant and don't want to face their ignorance.

- I really think that the theater aspect of the program is extremely valuable because it really helps to reconnect with the human components of who they are and the human components of expression which are oftentimes suppressed in the incarceration process.

I mean, you can't use your voice.

It's limited body movement.

It's a limited movement of space.

And so these very crucial elements to human expression are kind of cut off.

Even if they come to my class and they just do jumping jacks and roll on the wall, and roll on the floor, and use their voice and raise it and lower it and change planes.

At least at that point they're reconnecting with human expression, with human movement.

And I think that's a normalizing process for them.

I think it's a very helpful one too.

- I was in the first literature class with Sarah Higinbotham and the class for me was very eye-opening.

Coming from a background where I didn't read much literature of Shakespeare, Paradise Lost, John Milton.

Reading those books really expanded my horizon.

My favorite part of the literature class was being able to memorize and recite the literature back to the class.

Woman, who dared move my bed?

No builder had the skill for that, unless a god came down to turn the trick.

No mortal in his best days could budge it with a crowbar.

There is our pact, our pledge built into that bed.

My handiwork and no one else's.

- You can find yourself in any hero.

It doesn't matter what that, I guess skin color of that hero is, and when you find yourself in that hero, that's when you find that relatability and that's when you can apply those lessons to your life.

Like the Odyssey or anything like that, you know?

So, trying to find their way home, returning home, you're in prison, you're reading The Odyssey, you're like, how am I gonna get home?

And you're just like, okay, well I can get home if I do this, this, this and this and this.

- Common Good put something on me.

It's just, I can't even explain it.

I can't even explain it.

But it had a major effect on my life.

It had a major effect on my life, 'cause it was something.

I put so much focus into it.

Another reason, because I wanted to come home for my little sister and show her the right example.

'Cause I had put such a bad example on her from me going and going to prison and going to jail.

So I wanted to come home and put a good example for her, and show her that you can do, you do need to do good.

You can do good.

So I did that and I wanted to make my parents proud also.

So, and they helped me do that.

They helped me do that.

They did.

And I thank you, Sarah.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

- This is called, "Forgotten Portraits."

Suddenly nobody knows where you are.

You're just a memory, an echo, an idea thin as smoke.

(phone beeping) (phone ringing) - [Operator] We're sorry, your call cannot be completed.

The number you have reached is not in service.

At this time there is no new number.

Please ensure you have checked the telephone directory for the right number if you have dialed incorrectly.

This is a recording.

(music and sounds montage) (music and sounds montage) - I have become that final exhale that hangs in the air after the passing.

(person gasping) We are all beholden.

We are all the dead.

I am not apart from you for long, except for breath, except for everything.

(clapping) (ambient music) (person gasping) - This is when I'm like, "Hey, Kwan.

Hey, are you still reading?"

He's at the transition center, 'cause he did 20.

- [Speaker 3] Uh-huh.

- [Speaker 2] And he's like, "No, but you know, I got it up here."

I'm like, "What do you mean?"

(Kwan coughs) - See, when I recite stuff, man, I gotta, You know, I remember Dr. Vos, you know, he'd say "It's a rhythm, it's a rhythm."

- [Speaker 2] It is a rhythm.

- [Speaker 4] Right, man.

- And I gotta get a rhythm back Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into the world and all woes, with the loss of Eden, to one greater man restore us and regain the blissful seat.

Sing heavenly news that on the secret top Of Horeb, Horeb Sinai, this inspired that shepherd who first taught the chosen seed.

In the beginning, how the heavens and Earth rose out of chaos, or if Zion Hill delight thee more, or Siloa's brook that flowed fast by the Oracle of god.

I thence invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, that with no middle flight intends to soar above the Aonian Mount, while it pursues - I can't do this!

I can't quote this!

- In prose or rhyme.

- Nor did I assign it!

- And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer before all temples the upright heart and pure, assert eternal providence, and justifies the ways of Gods to men.

(group laughing) - [Speaker 5] Okay, that was beautiful.

- I had no idea he had memorized it.

- The program has helped me through adapting with society.

You know, being locked up as a teenager.

Everything I know is just prison.

And the program actually helps me connect with people, socially.

I'm still working on it.

It's a lot of work, but it does help me a lot, especially with Sarah.

Sarah helped me a great deal.

- There's a big conversation going on in Georgia now about criminal justice reform with a lot of specifics to it.

And you're kind of a poster child.

- Oh man (Kwan laughing).

- They, no, you, you are of someone who, who did what you could to get trained in, behind bars, both taking college courses, and taking shop and then, one of the people who was able to find employment.

This is terrifically hard to do.

I go to a tire shop in my neighborhood, and I've gone there for years, really.

And I was there with one of my tire issues, and I came in late and they said, you know, we're closing up.

But they actually had a young man on their staff who they said, well, he'll stay late.

We started talking before he ever worked on the tire.

And then afterward our conversation outside, after everything was done, I had my keys, my car was ready to go, and he was outside waiting for a ride.

And we wound up having a very long conversation.

- At first, I thought, I said, what do you want?

No, I'm very on the defense of people, you know, and especially my background being incarcerated and stuff.

And I had a shaved head back then, with tattoos everywhere.

And she actually spend her time to actually talk to me.

And I said, this is exactly my situation: which is I'm in a transition center, that I've been locked up since I was 16 years old.

And she was just amazed, I thought she was gonna run away, but she was actually amazed and asked more questions.

Of course.

- So, in the course of that, he made some reference to John Milton's Paradise Lost.

- Yeah, we were really talking about metaphors.

- Mm-hmm.

That's exactly right.

- Metaphors, how metaphors start, 'cause how politics is really a lot about metaphors, where you can use one word and just change the mindset of a whole bunch of people.

So we start talking about that, and then we talking about Paradise Lost.

- And I went, Paradise Lost?

Where'd you read Paradise Lost?

(Kwan laughing) And he said, "It was a college class I took," I said, "Well, wait, you've been behind bars, what do you mean you took a college class?"

And then he says, "Oh, there's a professor who came, who was working on her advanced degree, and as part of that she was able to come to the facility where I was, and I had a chance to do a college class with her."

And I said, "wait a minute, what's her name?"

(both laughing) And I said, "I know her."

He said, "you don't know her."

(both laughing) I said, "I know her, we are on an, I met her at Forever Families who works with supporting kids whose parents are incarcerated to be connected with their parents, and also to have a lot of services and support in that tough time."

And that's how I met, and the first time I met her, she had told me that she had worked behind bars with prisoners, and along with another colleague, and I, that struck me, thought it was great.

And here is a young man who's telling me, she was his professor.

I said, "I can't wait to call her."

He said, "You know her?"

I said, "I have her cell phone," (both laughing) and just then, your bus picked you up.

- Yeah.

- Your bus picked, I said, "well, we're gonna stay in touch, and I'm gonna call her."

And I hardly got outta the parking lot, before I called Sarah.

And she said, "You found Voo?"

Because they had been, you know, the way you, you get moved around in the prison system, mail doesn't always follow the prisoner.

And so their correspondence had lapsed, and neither one of them knew why.

They just knew that they stopped getting letters.

And so it was just miraculous, that I would spend long enough with you to learn your story, and then to find that we had this connection with this wonderful woman, and that we could all get reconnected.

- [Speaker 2] I also think there is a deep, and abiding pleasure for people who are teaching in a structured university setting, to leave those boundaries, and to recognize that for most of the history of higher ed in the United States, it's been too many gatekeepers, too narrowly restricted to certain kinds of people.

And so I think that once people know there is a structure in place in which you can cross those boundaries and reach people that we haven't historically been able to reach, then there is tremendous enthusiasm.

- Teaching at Phillips really showed me like, you know, that this can be transformative, right.

Like that's why we get into this discipline, right?

Like why we get into teaching.

Cause we think it really can have impact on people, and you know, teaching in a prison reminded me that that's true, right?

That's true for my students outside of the prison.

That, you know, they do get a lot out of what we're teaching, and maybe I just need to show them how they can get a lot out of it, and how they can take ownership and responsibility, what they're writing, and that really will help them understand the world around them.

You know, I think that's what the Humanities, Liberal Arts do, is help others, help people understand themselves and the world around them.

- I'll say something candid, and then we can talk about how much I want in this album, but let me put it this way.

When I've taught Humanities classes at the college level say at four year universities, and when I say that I mostly mean English classes, you know that can be Literature classes, or that can be Introductory Writing classes.

For the students in those classes, It's all sort of part of the plan.

You know, this is one required class that they have to do to get a degree.

I think that's fine.

I think it's great for people to get a college degree.

I think the kinds of faculties, of assessment and critical thinking that you learn in getting an undergraduate education are vital.

I think they're very important.

But, there is a way in which undergraduate education for a lot of people can be a kind of finishing school, a little bit.

And, in that way, I don't always know how much my students listen to me, or how much they take away.

In certain ways, for me, if I believe that studying the Liberal Arts, that studying the Humanities actually has a purpose and has an effect.

I feel a certain responsibility then, to go teach it in context where it might not necessarily be available, or it's not assumed as something that is there, or it's not assumed as, something that people necessarily have access to.

- What's different for me is going into a classroom where I can't call on my own experience almost at all, to try to identify with them.

And that... that is a, I don't have any answers to that.

You fail and you say you're sorry, and you, sometimes students are frustrated with you.

And my only answer for that, my best answer for that right now is just to keep showing up and keep learning, and being respectful of the differences in our experiences.

- [Speaker 2] I think especially as two white people in a space that is heavily comprised of people of color it's been incredibly important to make sure that you and I aren't the ones that are making the decisions.

That it's the students inside the classroom who are always giving us feedback.

- So they were really really good about following up, and hearing, hearing us.

And that right there is a jewel in prison.

You're not to talk, you're worded, you're, who you are is suppressed, you know.

Common Good Atlanta came in and they said, "Hey, this is our vault."

(laughs) This is your safe place.

And they provided that for us.

- [Speaker 2] Reading those comment cards at the end of every class where they write this is what went well today, this is what I didn't understand, it's in contemplating them and acting on them.

(gentle music) (gentle music) - Or, bringing our alumni once they're out, into advisory board positions, and always being in conversation with them.

I think if we've done things well, it's because it's been rooted in listening to them.

(upbeat jazz trumpet music) (upbeat jazz trumpet music) (crowd cheering and applauding) - Sarah's able to organize like a large scale operation, right?

While still sort of being able to pay attention to the small scale sort of emotional details.

Like how is this student doing?

What issues are they having?

You know, and just to be able to balance both of those things, I would imagine just takes a big toll.

It's not easy working in a prison, especially for as many years as she's been doing it.

- For all the euphoria, that faculty like me experience, inside the prison, it is also really heavy work.

Some of that comes from the institutionalization that happens in those places.

The security risks, the logistical challenges of getting in and out of a highly secure space with books, with papers.

Some of it comes from the fact that we're used to communicating with our students with email or with seeing them on campus, and being able to clarify assignments or questions, or encourage them if they're struggling with the concept, we can't do that in the prison space, because we can't have any contact with them outside just that short period of time in which we are teaching.

- I think we as students, if I can speak, you know for the class as a whole we felt the importance of getting to class, being there on time where you had the officers, they didn't, it was not of anything of importance to them.

The other issues I know, were, you know just finding that time, the assignments with Common Good Atlanta, like I said, it really allowed you to dig deep within yourself.

So, sometimes you just needed that quietness, and the only time you can really get that quietness is when lights were off and everybody started, you know, drifting away to sleep, you know?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- And knowing that was like one o'clock in the morning, you know?

And other than that it's just like, ah, you know, like oh my gosh, so.

A lot of times I didn't feel that I was giving my best work, because I was so distracted by the environment.

- [Speaker 2] The things that we take for granted at Emory and UGA, which is we have an institution that's working with us on our behalf.

We don't have that same luxury inside the prisons spaces.

- I think at some point in our lives, all of my mom's children have been research assistants or teaching assistants, or have in some capacity played an administrative role in Common Good Atlanta, and what it was in the very beginning.

It's all been really important to us to be there for her as much as possible.

She really cares about dignity for everybody.

And, you know, that's not easy.

I think it's really easy to care about the dignity of people that we see every day that we like.

And it's not so easy to say, "Well, I also, you know, care about dignity of the least of these, and of people who our society says "You are worthless.""

If you go to prison then, it isn't just however many years that you serve that your dignity is removed.

It's, you know, at the time that you're in trial when we set bail at a price that's absurdly high that nobody who is really truly affected by the incarceration system can afford to pay.

And then, you know, we have public defenders who do their best for the most part, but are also incredibly overworked.

And prosecutors who level incredible amounts of charges against an offender that they know really cannot afford a good lawyer.

And so they have no choice but to take a plea deal regardless of their actual guilt.

And so then you have these people in prison, for, you know, however many years, and then you get out.

- Job application, background checks.

It's, even though, I mean, I might apply a job, they're gonna deny me because my background.

- Looking at applying to homes, and taking my story, being honest, letting them know, listen, I got great references.

I've been doing this, I know I just got home and everything.

I got a job that's verifiable.

And just giving them synopsis of my story, not in depth, but, you know, just saying, I've been to prison and stuff.

And they, they will not, they will not open their hearts to give someone that has a criminal background a chance.

And that's what it is, it's just a chance.

(music tone playing) (indistinct speaking from unknown source) (group yelling, cheering) - I think part of the class actually got me to do things outside the norm, and basically, you know, John Milton and any other authors we read, they put in so much emphasis and idea, into something to make it bigger than it actually is.

So, on the day that I was supposed to got out, it was on a Friday, however, they let me out on Thursday.

My mom doesn't know that I was supposed to get out on Friday.

So, my mom, last thing she remembered me when I got locked up, was delivering a pizza for Pizza Hut.

So I came up with the idea, I'm gonna deliver my mom a pizza on Thursday.

(woman makes sounds of surprise) (man chuckles) (both crying) - There's something about the first time you get to see a formerly incarcerated student on the outside wearing regular clothes, and eating regular food, and being able to see what that looks like.

That they have emerged whole, and generous, and loving.

And then to watch them become parents, and go back into the community, and serve the community with their own strengths.

- So, here at IMAN, Inner-City Muslim Action Network, I'm a community organizer.

I work, in developing a criminal justice reform campaign.

So we support, what is right now the Second Chances for Georgia campaign.

That's really being headed up by Georgia Justice Project.

We have support for that, which is centered around changing expungement law in Georgia.

So allowing people with convictions, to be able to get their records either restricted or expunged, and so that they're not discriminated against once they go and apply for employment or housing.

I'm also developing a campaign around changing some of the laws here in Georgia about felony vote or disenfranchisement.

Even if you could come up with a valid argument of not allowing felons to vote, while they're in prison.

I think this country was built on one fundamental principle of no taxation without representation.

That's where it all started.

No taxation without representation.

So when I get out on parole as it is right now, as long as I'm on parole or probation or some sort of state supervision or community supervision, I can't vote, but I'd have to work.

As a matter of fact, if I don't work, I'm gonna be punished and I'm subject to go back to prison.

So you're making me work, and in that work, I'm paying taxes, but I'm paying taxes without the benefit of having representation.

So you stole my voice.

That is fundamentally un-American.

What is the reason for that?

And so these are some of the things that we're taking up here.

- Those sorts of things have been extremely humbling, but also really fun.

And so going to the High Museum with Preston Townson not long after he got out and when he was engaging with all that artwork live instead of the books that we had been bringing in, or watching Tariq Baiyina speak to the governor and the first lady at a podium in the capitol, or watching Robert Roebuck handing out bread in the park and watching people receive that, or signing up for a road race with Janine.

Lillian Smith said something that I so admired.

She said, "In order to live a good life, a meaningful life, in order to die a good death, you have to believe in something not yet proved and underwrite it with your life."

I've learned that from the men and women inside the prison who I watched them with these deep wells of inherent strengths.

They cultivate them with remarkable self-discipline to read really difficult texts and to invest themselves in it, and then to determine from that text what are my core convictions and what are my beliefs about then what that means for me to live in community with other people.

And then underwrite those beliefs with their own lives.

The work is heavy, but so deeply gratifying for those reasons.

(audience cheers) - I believe in second chances.

I believe that everybody deserves to come back from their mistakes in life.

Be able to come out and have an opportunity for a decent life.

(gentle guitar music) ♪ I was born by the river ♪ ♪ In a little tent ♪ ♪ And just like that river ♪ ♪ I've been running on it ever since ♪ ♪ It's been a long ♪ ♪ A long time coming, but I know ♪ ♪ A change is gonna come ♪ ♪ It's been too hard living ♪ ♪ But I'm afraid to die ♪ ♪ 'Cause I don't know what's up there ♪ ♪ Beyond the sky ♪ ♪ It's been a long ♪ ♪ A long time coming, but I know ♪ ♪ A change is gonna come ♪ ♪ Oh yes ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah ♪ ♪ Ah, ah, ah ♪ - Hello everyone.

My name is Bobby Huntley, and I am sitting here with Janine Solursh and also Hal Jacobs.

They are the filmmakers for "Common Good Atlanta Breaking Down the Walls."

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Yeah, so this documentary, dare I say, is amazing and mind-blowing.

Hal, I understand you've done several documentary projects and other films.

Janine, this is your first film project, right?

- Right.

- So how did this creative partnership start?

What's the beginning of this story?

- Well, we met in a classroom setup in downtown Atlanta.

I was not able to go inside prisons to film classroom interactions.

And a good part of the film is about what takes place in the classroom.

But Common Good Atlanta has a regular class in which anyone can attend.

You don't have to be incarcerated and it's free and you receive college credit.

And so I sat in for these classes, and I kept noticing Janine, very alert, and the interaction there between her and the instructors and the students was just amazing.

And I realized that this was not my story to tell as an outsider.

I needed to bring somebody who was there, who had experienced the incarceration and the classes inside the prison.

And Janine was just the excellent choice for it.

And she was also willing and able to do it.

So she filled out the film in ways that nobody else could have done.

- Now Sarah and Bill, they seem like such great people for starting this organization and things like that.

Can you give some insight into your involvement directly with them and how you got to know them both?

- Okay so, while I was incarcerated, I had been looking for college programs to become involved in and there's really not anything or there wasn't anything at the time that you could do, send away classes, anything like that.

There really wasn't any kind of college.

And I had a friend who was, she was a tutor in a high school in one of the high school programs.

And she knew that I had been trying to find a program, trying to find a college program.

And Sarah and Bill had recently gotten the okay to bring Common Good Atlanta into Whitworth Women's Facility which is a women's prison.

And it was the first time that they were able to come into one of the women's prisons.

So the friend came and got me one day at the fence, one of the fences, and said, "Hey, there's a program coming in.

Would you like to be involved?"

And I was like, "Absolutely, definitely.

Please put me on the list."

So very soon after, we were called up to go to the class and I remember seeing Bill walk by with a box of books and thinking, "That guy looks like a professor."

And then I met Sarah.

That was my first class was with Sarah and she's just incredible.

She shines this light and she's just an incredible person, but it's all genuine.

She is the person that you see on film.

She is the person that when you meet her the first time and she's all smiles and just excitement, that she really makes it easy to fall in love with literature and Shakespeare and these things.

So that was my first introduction to them and we're all very close still.

I still talk to her daily sometimes, and Bill, as often as possible.

- She's so passionate about material.

And during interviews with some of the men, they would say they met her in class and they're trying to figure out what her deal is.

"What's this white woman coming into the prison and talking about Shakespeare and Milton?

What is she getting out of it?"

- I feel it's a true testament that art can just transform and just radiate through people.

It's a great energy to, even with people from different walks of lives or different things that you don't really understand.

It's a great wall breaker.

And especially from an educational standpoint, to a teacher, professor, educator, just having a lot of love for what you do makes a world of difference.

And especially the scene where there was some people that got into Shakespeare and didn't really understand but you could see her enthusiasm for how she breaks it down.

And it's like you could see their eyes, everything about them just transforming.

That is so amazingly beautifully captured in this documentary that we don't really see that much.

From what I understand, there's several professors on board now to this day.

It just grew at this point.

Can you tell me a little bit more about the growth of the organization?

- Well, they really set the tone for what they wanted other instructors to do inside the prison.

They wanted them to teach at that same level, the same passion.

And it grew from just Sarah by herself for two years and then Bill, and then within 10 years, they had 70 other professors from Georgia State Tech, Emory, University of Georgia, all volunteering to go in.

And the story is about how much they're getting out of it too.

The incarcerated students, it's really empowering for them, but it's also equally empowering for these instructors.

- The human to human experience.

- [Janine] Yeah, for sure.

- Yeah, yeah.

So Janine, speaking more to that, you said you were an alumni and now you're on the board of the organization.

Can you tell me a little bit more of that transition for yourself?

- Yeah, so I graduated the program after I got out.

I moved on to TC, transitional center while I was involved in Common Good in prison.

And the program was not at the transitional center where I was, so when I got out, Sarah got in touch with me and helped me get back into the class so I could finish out.

And Common Good, one of the things that they really strive to do is to not just be a bunch of stuffy, rich white guys that are putting on this program for people that has to do with their lives.

So they want people that are involved directly.

They want people that are directly impacted.

So those of us that have been successful in the program and choose to stay involved, which is most of us, they sometimes will offer a board position and they want to hear our thoughts and our input.

And that's something that I was lucky enough that they thought I might be suited to, so.

- Oh, that is a very great thing to see.

And it gives it such a validation especially for those still in the system to be able to see the possibilities outside of the wall.

So for the both of you, can y'all recall a specific moment, either while filming, in the actual classrooms or the interviews where you felt like, "This is the magic right here.

This is why we're doing what we're doing to tell this story."

- There was a moment when one of the incarcerated students who I had met inside.

I had gone in to teach a few classes.

And when he was being released outside prison and his family was there and he was about to drive with his family to Chicago, it's in the film.

And he comes out carrying a bag of books and he's handing books to Sarah, and Bill is handing books to him.

And then all the instructors that are there to greet him all have a moment with him, standing together, which was a very powerful moment.

And then Sarah goes to Chicago to see how he's doing and records that with a GoPro.

And he's got his book that he illustrated while in prison and he's talking to her about that book.

And now he's outside, he's got deep dish pizza.

Just the way that came together, I never could have planned for anything like that.

- We as a people have predetermined ideas about what kinds of people are convicted of crimes, but you can't walk in to one of our classrooms and sit and discuss Kafka or Dostoevsky or Solzhenitsyn or Shakespeare or Milton or Mary Shelley and not recognize the shared humanity among all of us.

- With the completion of this film, what is the response or reactions have been like for you as the creatives of this?

What has it been like out there in the world?

You're in different festivals, different screening opportunities.

What's been going on?

- One of the more powerful moments is when we screened it to everyone who was in the film, all the alumni and instructors and just to see how they would react.

And afterwards, there was a silence which I couldn't really read.

I didn't know if it was a good or bad silence.

And it turned out to be a really good kind of silence and people were telling us not to change anything, that it worked the way it was.

And then when we showed it on college campuses, we're getting feedback from these undergraduates talking about how it makes 'em see the world a little differently.

It makes 'em think about what they want to do with their lives.

So that, I don't think there can be a more powerful message than that when you hear something like that.

And hopefully festivals and we'll be doing more screenings.

So this screening in particular, we'll be reaching people in Atlanta who've never heard of the program and they can see a very uplifting message about how the community can be stronger by working together like this.

Small steps, right?

- Yeah, we've been lucky and been able to screen to several different kinds of audiences really.

And it's nice to hear the laughter, some of the funny parts or size or whatever.

When people are watching Sahd hug his mom and things like that.

So it's wonderful to see people's reactions, but like Hal was saying, when we've had the screenings at college campuses and hearing students talk about how it made them reconsider their privilege and what they're doing with it.

And that's the aim, and not that alone, but just to make people think and make people have a conversation and to consider something that maybe you've never considered or have had a chance to think about, and I feel like it's really doing that.

I'm grateful to be a part of it.

- The Atlanta film community overall, Hal, can you give us some insights of your experiences here and all of your films overall and just using your community and things like that?

Can you give us some insights into that?

- The documentary world to me is very fragmented.

It's not the Atlanta filmmaking scene that people think about when they hear about big productions.

There's a group of Atlanta filmmakers who do these type of projects and it's a struggle to get your films out into the public.

We're thankful to have places like Morehouse.

WABE who are willing to release our work, show our work to other people.

But for me, there's so many stories in Atlanta to tell because we're sort of off the grid from the big East Coast filmmaking communities and the West Coast, so I think within this region, I'm hoping more filmmakers will come out and focus on the stories of the people here.

- [Bobby] Homegrown stories.

- Exactly.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So for the both of you, so what's next?

Any other ideas?

Are you gonna keep this project going a little bit longer, more touring or anything after this?

- I'm already nearing the end of a documentary about a blues institution at Atlanta called the Northside Tavern which will be screening later this year.

And I'm looking for projects that deal with community and people who are interested in building stronger community.

Just like Sarah Higinbotham did with Common Good Atlanta, a woman named Ellyn Webb did this with the blues community at the Northside Tavern in West Midtown.

So that's next for me.

- This was a beautiful film.

I truly appreciate the both of you for coming out and sharing this story and this amazing documentary.

Thank you.

And you at home, the viewer, thank you so much for watching "Atlanta On Film."

Now, if these two films have shown us anything, it's that there are many, many levels to the interactions we have with people.

And what matters most is that we listen to each other and give empathy so that we all can grow together.

Let's make that our mission as we go out into the world.

Until next week, I'm Bobby Huntley, and this is "Atlanta On Film."

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