• Arts
  • Creative Work Fund

Documentary filmmaker Jane Greenberg is collaborating with The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (The Ella Baker Center) to co-create three short videos featuring the personal stories of individuals caught up in the criminal justice system and exploring the root causes that led to their criminalization. Oakland-based independent filmmaker Jane Greenberg has been working in key roles on documentary films for 20 years. Her recently completed film, THE SURRENDER OF WAYMOND HALL, personalizes a criminal justice story and marks her transition to directing feature-length documentaries. At screenings of THE SURRENDER for targeted audiences, she and the Ella Baker Center will identify individuals who want to tell stories in the short films. In addition to helping to identify video subjects, the Ella Baker Center will provide contextual information and outreach assistance. The finished works are meant to challenge stigmas and stereotypes while building audience empathy. The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights advances racial, gender, and economic justice to ensure dignity and opportunity for low-income people and people of color. For years it has advanced an innovative social change model that is based on “narrative change,” transforming the stories that dominate the public conversation about crime and punishment. The proposed films will advance those narrative change efforts. The first video short is expected to be released in May 2019 and the remaining two films in July 2020 in conjunction with the Ella Baker Center’s Night Out for Safety and Liberation. All three videos will be shared through the Center’s Website.