Can poetry change lives? “Finding the Words: The Story of Voices from Inside” is a documentary about the impact writing & community have on incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, as well as women in recovery in Western Massachusetts.
Learn about how these women come together to write poetry, find hope and friendship, and inspire others through their performances and workshops with the public.
Trailer
For those who where not able to join a screening, you can also view the recording of the premiere at the Academy of Music.
Film Team
Alexandra Wagman | Director, Executive Producer
Alexandra is a filmmaker, professor of English, and the Service-Learning Program documentarian at Holyoke Community College. She came to know the women of Voices from Inside through their visits to HCC and performances in the community. She was moved to witness how expressive writing could have such a positive impact.
Florian Marschoun | Executive Producer, Director of Photography
Florian is a full time photographer and filmmaker. Originally from Austria, he moved to the United States in 2014 and has worked on multiple creative projects since then. He serves on the board of Northampton Open Media. He holds a Master of Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business.
J.D. Swerzenski | Editor, Audio Engineer, Associate Producer
J.D. is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Communication at Mary Washington
University. His work explores the role of media production and instructional software play in structuring learning practices as well as how educators might retheorize our use of technological tools to support critical engagement.
Danielle Amodeo | Producer
Danielle is the founder of Arts Equity Group, a network of activists, artists, and organizational consults devoted to working toward equity in the arts and cultural sector. She is the Chair of the Northampton Arts Council. She holds a Bachelor’s in European Studies from Amherst College and a Master’s in Art History from Williams College.
Aundrea Marschoun | Director of Photography
Aundrea is a professional photographer and is currently studying psychology at Smith College. Her creative work focuses on storytelling with an emphasis on human connection and vulnerability.
Sara Sacks | Cinematographer
After receiving her MA in Media Studies at the University of Oregon, Sara worked as an advocate and community engagement specialist at Safe Passage, a domestic violence non-profit in Northampton, MA. She is now working towards receiving her J.D. at Emory University School of Law in hopes of representing survivors of domestic violence in her future career as an attorney.
Kelly Vogel | Composer
Kelly Vogel is a Learning Specialist, facilitator, and educator with over 20 years experience in the public and private sectors. She won a Community-Based Learning Grant and partnered for 3 years with Voices from Inside. Kelly, also a singer-songwriter has used the opportunity to write the music for the documentary as an opportunity to augment her support for VFI with the power of sound. Here’s a link to her website.
Background Information
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, on average 2,019,900 women are incarcerated each year in America, and 80% of them are mothers.
Learn more by checking out the Prison Policy Initiative, Northampton, MA
About Voices From Inside: Project scholars Nicole Hendricks, Professor of Criminal Justice, and Mary Orisich, Professor of Economics, have written about the power of Voices From Inside (VFI) for both women and their audiences. They state:
VFI continues and evolves the long-standing tradition of oral history and testimonial writing found in African American & LatinX communities. These traditions acknowledge the voice of the voiceless, and place the lived experiences of marginalized individuals front and center such that others (those who read, listen, watch) can gain a more complex, compassionate understanding of the author not as “the other” but as a dignified fellow human being. Moreover, VFI demonstrates the feminist tradition of community-building through sharing lived experiences which facilitates trust, understanding, and empowerment….The film seeks to have viewers engage with their own preconceptions about incarcerated women; to examine and discern how and why the media portrayal of incarcerated women is often sensationalized (eg. shows like “Orange Is the New Black”); to reflect on ways our social institutions have failed and how these women and VFI have succeeded in spite of this. We hope the film stimulates questions about systemic inequality, about patriarchy, and how these might be related.
Words Do Matter
Vera Institute has some excellent articles about the power of language and what it suggests as it pertains to the criminal legal system as well as the words we use to describe people who get entangled in the system. Erica Bryant, author of “Words Matter: Don’t Call People Felons, Convicts, or Inmates” writes, “Calling a person who was convicted of a crime a ‘criminal,’ ‘felon,’ or ‘offender’ defines them only by a past act and does not account for their full humanity or leave space for growth. These words also promote dangerous stereotypes and stoke fear, which stigmatize people who have been convicted of crimes and make it harder for them to thrive.”
Jerome R. Wright, a statewide organizer for the #HALTsolitary Campaign in New York, says, “Our humanity is maintained and respected by not referring to us in those impersonal and definitive terms, but by acknowledging our intrinsic value as human and not by defining us by the worst day or act in our lives.”
About Vera
More articles you may find informative:
- “More Than 5 Million Children Have Had an Incarcerated Parent” by Erica Bryant
- “Women’s Incarceration Rates Are Skyrocketing. These Advocates Are Trying to Change That.” by Nazish Dholakia
- “Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Incarcerated Mothers” by Nissa Rhee
“Since you asked: What role does drug enforcement play in the rising incarceration rates of women?” by Tianna Herring, Prison Policy Initiative
- “Women make up about 10% of people in jails and prisons. This means that patterns unique to women’s incarceration are easily obscured when we focus exclusively on the larger, overall incarcerated population”
- “Over the past 35 years, total arrests have risen 25% for women, while decreasing 33% for men. The increase among women is largely driven by drugs: During that period, drug related arrests increased nearly 216% for women, compared to 48% for men.”
- “We also found that growth in women’s incarceration is primarily happening at the jail level. Unlike incarcerated men, incarcerated women are more likely to be in county or city jails than in state or federal prison. Most of these jailed women (60%) have not been convicted of a crime and are being held pretrial, often because they cannot afford bail. This isn’t surprising when you consider that most women held on bond have incomes that fall below the poverty line.”
Check out the Prison Policy Initiative for more information