Empowering the Yard
Set in Oklahoma, where more women are incarcerated per capita than anywhere else in the country, Empowering the Yard looks at HIV prevention from the perspective of incarcerated women who are using peer education to empower themselves, their families and their communities. The HIV Peer Education Program provides an opportunity for incarcerated women to teach each other about the issues they face, including safe sex, sexually transmitted infections, drugs and violence. The documentary follows five HIV Peer Educators who explain why incarceration rates for women are so high and speak to the self-esteem and empowerment they have gained through the HIV Peer Education Program.
Trailer
Credits
Directors/Producers: Erin Persley, Emily Kirsch, Vincent Horner
Executive Producers: National AIDS Fund, San Francisco State University Health Equity Initiative and the Health Education and Cinema Departments at San Francisco State University
Cinematographers: Erin Persley, Vincent Horner
Editors: Erin Persley, Vincent Horner
Running time: 15 min.
Website: Health & Social Justice Documentary Films
About the Filmmakers
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Florida, where she attended the University of Florida, ERIN PERSLEY directed and edited several shorts including Berkeley of the South (2004) and Struggle for Choice (2002), which dealt with social justice subjects ranging from abortion to the anti-war student movement. Currently at the graduate film program at San Francisco State University, Persley combines her hybrid filmmaking with producing and coordinating other shorts including Fragile Distance (2007) and A Green Mountain in the Drawer (2007). Her first graduate work, Please Report Any Suspicious Activity (2007), focused on the airport institution and used poetics to explore overzealous security measures and unseen spaces. Following Empowering the Yard, Persley is currently working on her master's thesis, Living Inside Out, which concentrates on women transitioning back into society after spending time in prison. With her deep commitment to provocative documentary filmmaking, she intends to change how people interact with their community, other cultures and one another.
When it comes to working for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America, EMILY KIRSCH exudes a fierce passion. As the Bay Area Organizer for the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California, Kirsch works with local green businesses, labor unions, environmental groups and community-based organizations to create an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Kirsch is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a self-designed major in urban health, justice and sustainability.
VINCENT HORNER recently completed his undergraduate coursework at San Francisco State University. He strives to continue using film and music as means to promote social justice and peace-work. He currently lives in Oakland, California.