A GILDA SHEPPARD FILM
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Social Justice Film Festival
Winner! Documentary Feature Gold Prize |
2020 DOC NYC
Winner! 'Audience Favorite' Award |
REVIEWS:
'Since I Been Down' Review: Crime & Punishment
- The New York Times
Review: Documentary probes hope for prison lifers, plus more movies to watch this weekend
- The Los Angeles Times
‘Always a possibility of change’: incarcerated teens seek justice as adults
- The Guardian
- The New York Times
Review: Documentary probes hope for prison lifers, plus more movies to watch this weekend
- The Los Angeles Times
‘Always a possibility of change’: incarcerated teens seek justice as adults
- The Guardian
“a powerful illustration unveiling the criminal justice system’s punitive excess. As a career prosecutor, I believe we must redefine justice to include community justice principles where punishment is no longer the sole response to crime. The time is now for criminal justice reparations. We must build trust, restore lives, and repair the harm done to communities of color.”
- Dan Satterberg
King Country (WA) Prosecutor
- Dan Satterberg
King Country (WA) Prosecutor
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“Director Gilda Shepard is a gifted teacher, incisive scholar, committed activist, and a talented filmmaker who's dedicated her life to the education and liberation of poor and oppressed people -- especially black people in the era of mass incarceration. We all owe her a debt of gratitude for her brilliant work and steadfast commitment to justice.”
- Michelle Alexander Civil Rights Attorney; Author “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” |
“In this sweeping documentary, director Gilda Sheppard tells the stories of kids caught up in a spate of gang violence in the 1980s and 1990s in Tacoma and traces their narratives to the present... Sheppard weaves together interviews with prisoners, cops, and community members to question what true justice looks like."
- Naomi Ishisaka 
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“The amount of human potential that is wasted everyday inside our prison system is a tragedy. Since I Been Down is a heartbreaking exploration of the injustices that draw people to the criminal justice system, the human potential for growth, and the humanity behind every prison wall. For too long, we’ve run prisons that only fuel inequity and violence; this documentary is a striking explanation of just how much that approach has cost us.
I hope this serves as a clarion call to finally invest in educational programs that give incarcerated people the opportunity to learn, grow, and rejoin society — we cannot afford to do any less.” - Arti Finn Co-Founder & Chief Business Development Officer, APDS |
“It is troubling that we have a demographic of people in our society who are socialized to believe prison and death are normal, and that living beyond the age of 21, or 25 is a goal. The film, “Since I Been Down” depicts that justice is not the same as the justice system, which is broken by the influence of race. The Black Prisoner’s Caucus, highlighted in the film, is a model for our entire country…its mission to “create a better version of who we are” needs to be the mission of our country.
In this time of heightened awareness of racism in policing, “Since I Been Down” delivers an honest statement that should compel all of us to respond.” - Susan Lockwood Robert, Ed.D. CEO, Correctional Education Association |
“a beautifully moving film that humanizes - in all its complexity - a group the culture has relegated to the margins of empathy and understanding.
Showing how the real people entrapped in inhumane structures struggle for dignity and meaning, it offers a powerful rebuttal to the racist tropes that have allowed the system of mass incarceration to remain intact in the face of overwhelming evidence of its brutality and ineffectiveness. A wonderful and skillful piece of filmmaking that deserves to be widely seen and discussed.”
- Sut Jhally
Professor Emeritus University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Executive Director, Media Education Foundation
Showing how the real people entrapped in inhumane structures struggle for dignity and meaning, it offers a powerful rebuttal to the racist tropes that have allowed the system of mass incarceration to remain intact in the face of overwhelming evidence of its brutality and ineffectiveness. A wonderful and skillful piece of filmmaking that deserves to be widely seen and discussed.”
- Sut Jhally
Professor Emeritus University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Executive Director, Media Education Foundation
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SINCE I BEEN DOWN
Directed by Gilda Sheppard
Run time: 105 min Public Performance Rights Licensing:
Starting at $325 Organizations & institutions please contact info@passionriver.com today for a quote Synopsis:
Influenced by the national drug war frenzy and the fear-based culture of punishment in the 1980s-90s, Tacoma, Washington sacrificed its most vulnerable children to a life behind bars. Those children, now adults, cannot be silenced as they advocate for transformative and restorative justice from behind bars, seeking to prevent future generations of black and brown boys from the same fate. |
Add Since I Been Down To Your Collection Below!
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Long Synopsis:
SINCE I BEEN DOWN is an American story showcasing one city, Tacoma, WA, as an example of “Everytown, USA.” These are stories told through the eyes of a community impacted by lack of investment in resources and the fear-based policies of the 1980’s and ‘90’s that sacrificed and labeled their most-vulnerable children as irredeemable “super predators.”
The film presents dramatic stories of how fear, racism and a false sense of safety, security and prosperity, arrested the development of one American community, discarding the poorest and targeting brown and black youth and led to the disappearance of an entire generation of children.
SINCE I BEEN DOWN spotlights the life of Kimonti Carter and a group of his peers, young girls and boys, as they maneuver through a non-negotiable pathway to joining gangs as early as 11 years old and follows their trajectory into violent crimes and to prison. The film unravels intimate stories from interviews brought to life through archival footage, cinema verité discussions, masquerade and dance to cinematically unravel why children commit violent crime, and how these children now adults are breaking free from their fate by creating a model of justice that is transforming their lives, our humanity and a quality of life for all our children.
SINCE I BEEN DOWN is an American story showcasing one city, Tacoma, WA, as an example of “Everytown, USA.” These are stories told through the eyes of a community impacted by lack of investment in resources and the fear-based policies of the 1980’s and ‘90’s that sacrificed and labeled their most-vulnerable children as irredeemable “super predators.”
The film presents dramatic stories of how fear, racism and a false sense of safety, security and prosperity, arrested the development of one American community, discarding the poorest and targeting brown and black youth and led to the disappearance of an entire generation of children.
SINCE I BEEN DOWN spotlights the life of Kimonti Carter and a group of his peers, young girls and boys, as they maneuver through a non-negotiable pathway to joining gangs as early as 11 years old and follows their trajectory into violent crimes and to prison. The film unravels intimate stories from interviews brought to life through archival footage, cinema verité discussions, masquerade and dance to cinematically unravel why children commit violent crime, and how these children now adults are breaking free from their fate by creating a model of justice that is transforming their lives, our humanity and a quality of life for all our children.
