The Trust: Learning Trust Finding Hope

2010-09-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

Apple of Discord Productions and the Oakland Film Office present:

THE TRUST, a work-in-progress film by Tamara Perkins, Jesse Dana, and Diana J Brodie

An emotionally rich documentary, THE TRUST takes us into the lives of men and their families as they are reunited after decades in prison. Darnell, Abraham, Harrison and Chris - all incarcerated since teenagers - explore their turbulent pasts in order to help themselves and others while piecing together new lives. Transcending stereotypes in favor of nuanced, emotionally honest, and disarmingly humorous moments, THE TRUST offers a lens into the intimate lives of three men and their families battling for a second chance. Find out more at trustcommunity.org

Thursday, October 14, 2010

6:00pm Reception with light refreshments
6:30pm Screening
7:15pm Panel Discussion with:
• Joe Brooks, Vice President for Civic Engagement, Policy Link
• Don Spector, Executive Director, Prison Law Office
• Men from The Trust: Noel Valdivia, Harrison Seuga, and Demetrius Daniel
8:00pm Open Audience Q&A
8:30pm Resource Fair

Sliding Scale Suggested Donation $5-20

Funny and/or Auspicious Fortunes also Accepted

LOCATION: Oakland Asian Cultural Center (2nd floor of the Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Oakland's Chinatown).
388 9th Street, Suite 290
Oakland, California 94607

Near the 12th Street BART Station. Parking also available at Pacific Renaissance Plaza Garage - entrances on both Franklin between 9th and 11th AND Webster at 10th.

Facebook users can confirm their attendance here. Everyone welcome!

Screening sponsored by the Oakland Film Office

Questions? Call the Oakland Film Office at 510-238-4734 or email at filmoakland@filmoakland.com.

Youth Uprising, The Wisdom Project and Yoram Savion: Director of the Youth Jail Chronicles

2010-03-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

"Youth Jail Chronicles", a youth-produced video at Youth UpRising was selected for the Alternatives in Action's Project YouthView Film Festival 2010. Students Darmarea Barr, Demani Adkins and Daeshane Moore as well as multimedia instructor Yoram Savion were invited to be VIP guests at the Film Festival screening at the historic Alameda Theatre & Cineplex on May 6, 2010.

Project YouthView is Alternatives in Action's premier fundraising event that celebrates the power of youth. It does so by showcasing youth-created "film shorts" (submitted by youth across the San Francisco Bay Area) and through a special featured film that tells the story of youth taking action in their lives and in their communities. The event becomes an opportunity for intergenerational dialogue between youth filmmakers, veteran filmmakers and audience members about the issues of importance to young people and the power that young people have to make a difference.

Tickets to the show can be purchased by clicking over to http://www.alternativesinaction.org.

More info about "Youth Jail Chronicles":

Youth Jail Chronicles" is part of the Wisdom project which brings together currently incarcerated men at San Quentin State Prison with young people from Youth UpRising in East Oakland engaged in a multimedia dialogue about criminalization and incarceration. In San Quentin, men are involved in video production training to generate pieces about choices, consequences and to warn young people about the behaviors that may lead them in prison. In East Oakland, at the Youth UpRising center, young people are involved in a multimedia production program in which they are encouraged to watch and respond to the pieces made by the men in San Quentin.

The Wisdom Project serves as both an excuse and a bridge. It is an excuse to bring up the experiences and traumas that may be blocking or misguiding young people growing up in stressed environments or men that are serving long sentences and are continuing to learn how to grow and change. It is a bridge between these two not-so-distant groups, young people outside, and men inside, so they can share and learn together and generate the ideas, skills and media needed to establish the building blocks to re-frame the current narrative of crime and punishment in their communities. Together they must generate the vision for alternatives to young people going to jail or later prison and helping prisoners re-integrate into society upon release.

This video was produced by three students enrolled in the Mayor Summer Job Program at Youth UpRising, Summer 2009. It was filmed by Darmarea Barr, Demani Akins and Daeshane Moore. It was edited by Darmarea Barr and multimedia instructor, Yoram Savion.

This video was previously selected for the 8th International Oakland Film Festival (it was screened at the Grand Lake Theater on October 16th, 2009).

Three Perspectives on RACE & INCARCERATION - Stanford Law School

2010-01-24T10:27:00.000-08:00

Why are people of color—African American males in particular—grossly over-represented in prisons and in jails relative to their numbers in the U.S. population? What happens to them in prison? What happens when they get out? The purpose of this panel is to examine the causes and consequences of racial disparities in imprisonment from three different vantage points. Professor Steven Raphael will discuss the relationship between criminal justice policies and racial disparities in imprisonment. Filmmaker Tamara Perkins will discuss a new documentary she is developing which tells the stories of black men in San Quentin State Prison. Finally, Chief Ronald Davis will discuss a re-entry program he has developed in collaboration with Free At Last in East Palo Alto.

Panelists:
STEVEN RAPHAEL
Professor of Public Policy University of California, Berkeley

TAMARA PERKINS
Documentary Filmmaker

CHIEF RONALD DAVIS
Chief of Police, East Palo Alto

Discussant:
JOAN PETERSILIA
Professor of Law and Co-Director of Stanford Criminal Justice Center

This event is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend, please rsvp by emailing cnqueen@stanford.edu.

Thursday, February 4, 2010 / 4:30 to 6:30 PM
Stanford Law School, Room 290
Panel presented by the Stanford Law School and the Research Institute of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (RICSRE).

Director/Co-Producer Tamara Perkins on KALW radio call-in show! Monday, Nov 2, 2009

2009-11-02T15:47:00.000-08:00

Live on the radio this evening: "The Trust" Director & Co-Producer Tamara Perkins

Check out "City Visions" -- a weekly show on our local public radio station. Listen live tonight (and call in!) on KALW 91.7 or via the on-line stream, shows are also archived on the City Visions web site.

Looking forward to hearing Tamara on the radio!!

THE TRUST presented at Houston Institute for Race and Justice Inclusion Conference

2009-10-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

This past week THE TRUST had the honor of being asked to share a work-in-progress piece from the film at the Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School's Inclusion Conference. The goal of conference was to begin developing a far-reaching plan and several related shorter-term, concrete projects through which people and organizations collectively advance an inclusive, opportunity-expanding agenda over the next decade.

Kicked off by the Houston Institute's Founder and Executive Director, Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., along with an inspiration introduction by the son of the man for which the Houston Institute is named, Charles Hamilton Houston, Jr.

THE TRUST was presented as another opportunity to view media as a partner to policy and values based campaigns as demonstrated by films such as The Visitor and Trouble the Water.

Present at the conference were professors, NGO directors, law enforcement directors, Judges, and policy experts. Speakers included John Powell, Peter Edelman, Judge Harry T. Edwards, and John H. Rutherford, Sheriff of Jacksonville, Florida.

These leaders came together to identify, broad, common, values and principles that unify movements, organizations and causes that are typically separated into categories such as “criminal justice,” “public health,” “education” and “immigration”, and learn how to better communicate these values and principles through messages that reach beyond self-defined progressives.

It was exciting and inspirational to be among these prolific leaders and able to begin to take in and learn from their collective wisdom.

Thank you David Harris and Kaia Stern for inviting me, and Sheryl Jackson-Holliday for making the trip so easy and comfortable!

Continually grateful to serve...
Peace,
Tamara

Tamara Perkins
Director/Producer, THE TRUST

2009-10-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

“Surviving Criminalization: Films on Incarceration & Family Detention”

Wednesday, October 14: Another great night of conversation and building connections!

We extend thanks to our colleagues at the Equal Justice Society for inviting us to co-present our work along with the west-coast premier of “The Least of These,” a provocative documentary that addresses the use of family detention as part of the current U.S. immigration.

More than 120 tickets were sold for this screening, and over 100 of these folks stuck around for the question-and-answer session that followed.

Speaking on behalf of “The Trust” were Producer/Director Tamara Perkins, Film Advisor Arnold Perkins, and Rhody McCoy, Program Associate for The National Trust for the Development of African American Men.

The clip we showed was an enhanced version of the previous week’s presentation at Saint Mary’s, which focused mostly on the men inside. This updated segment reflects the on-going efforts of Tamara and Editor Diana J. Brodie, who have been hard at work interweaving input from incarceration experts and family members. As we watched from the comfort of the cushy seats at the Sundance Kabuki Theatre, the film itself looked fabulous and lush in all it’s glory up there on the big screen!

There were two recurring themes that arose in the post-screening Q & A conversation:

(1) the importance of illuminating our cultural reliance on incarceration as a solution to “problems” such as asylum seekers and drug addiction. A deeper look at the situation reveals a powerful profit motive for maintaining prisons along with extreme racial disparities regarding incarceration rates. (In the words of one audience member: “immigrants are being held because they are leaving deplorable conditions, and black and brown people are being held because they can’t leave deplorable conditions.”)

(2) a shared understanding of our inter-connectedness with those behind bars. Panelist Clark Lyda, Co-Producer of “The Least of These,” clarified that his priority for the film was to connect viewers with a stronger sense of the immigration detainees as fellow humans who are attempting to find safety and security for their families, while Tamara echoed this theme when she declared that “rehabilitating” how our society views prisoners as “others” is foremost in her mind as she moves forward in completing “The Trust.”

Again, many thanks to the co-sponsors of the event: the Equal Justice Society, in partnership with the ACLU of Northern California, the San Francisco Film Society, and the Commonweal Institute.

-----

Watch for upcoming blog posts as we continue to build connections with community partners: bringing you additional news from fellow activists working to put a human face on the issue of incarceration.

Roots & Redemption: Social Justice & the Prison System presented by St. Mary's College of California

2009-10-15T12:42:00.000-07:00

A special screening of clips from “The Trust”, in conjunction with a conversation on “Roots & Redemption: Social Justice & the Prison System”

Wednesday, October 7, 2009, at Saint Mary’s College of California

Last week, “The Trust” was invited to participate in a special evening of conversation organized by St. Mary’s Professor Marshall Welch in his role as Director of CILSA (the Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Aciton), which is the academic center at Saint Mary's College for promoting a culture of service and social justice education.

The evening featured two clips from “The Trust” (both available on You Tube), with brief introductions by film co-producers Tamara Perkins and Jesse Dana.

To add more depth to the film clips, Tamara invited two social justice advocates to join us and talk about their efforts within the criminal justice system: The Honorable Gail Brewster Bereola, Judge of the Superior Court of California, and Rhody McCoy, Program Manager of The National Trust.

Judge Bereola spoke passionately about her belief that the vast majority of young people she sees in her court have the capacity to be become educated, focused, and gainfully employed, if only we would re-allocate our resources to give them support instead of just punishment and warehousing.

Rhody McCoy reminded us that this is a community problem, which is going to take community-based solutions, such as The Trust, to support incarcerated men in learning to break the cycle of incarceration and become an asset to their communities. In both of their presentations, it seemed clear that they just barely scratched the surface of what they have to share regarding these topics.

In order to bring the evening back to the topic initially posed for the Saint Mary’s students: “How does restorative justice relate to our mission for Social Justice here at Saint Mary’s?” we heard from three faculty members about the work they are doing to provide students with opportunities to learn more about the realities of our criminal justice system.

Participants than had a chance to discuss amongst themselves, and then to share with the group their own ideas about possible next steps in terms of what can be done at Saint Mary’s College to understand and promote restorative justice.

Ideas included creating awareness with a speaker series, offering field trips to visit prisons, providing scholarships for ex-offenders, and starting a mentoring program for Saint Mary’s College students to help teach reading and writing skills to the youth in juvenile hall.

We were pleased to hear back from the professors that several of the students enthusiastically continued the conversation in their classes the next day -- this mirrored the experience of the presenters and film crew, all of whom lingered long after the stated end time of the event, eager to build connections and share our own experiences. Building community, launching the conversation, getting people inspired and involved: this is precisely the goal of our project!

See below for more details on the current projects and past accomplishments of our guest speakers.

There was another chance to see exclusive footage and join the conversation on Wednesday, October 14 at SF's Sundance Kabuki Theater - stay tuned for an update on this special event.

Surviving Criminalization: Films on Incarceration & Family Detention - Presented by the Equal Justice Society, ACLU of Northern California, SF Film Society and the Commonweal Institute.

Guest speakers featured at "Roots & Redemption: Social Justice & The Prison System"

The Honorable Gail Brewster Bereola is a Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda and the Presiding Judge of the Alameda County Juvenile Court. She has handled cases involving abused and neglected children who are dependents of the court, as well as delinquency cases involving youth accused of committing crimes. Interested in addressing habitual truancy and in maximizing positive outcomes for youth, Judge Bereola has launched several ground-breaking programs, including a Middle School Truancy Diversion Court pilot program designed to address habitual truancy of middle school students, and the first Alameda County Restorative Juvenile Justice Task Force to study restorative justice practices and how they could be utilized in Alameda County. This task force developed a three-year restorative justice strategic plan, which was ratified by stakeholders in March 2009. Broad-based collaborative efforts are currently underway to implement the three year strategic plan that Judge Bereola believes will fundamentally and positively change how juvenile justice is administered in Alameda County, and will address issues of accountability, repairing harms caused by youthful wrong-doing, supporting and strengthening youth, victims, families and communities.

Rhody McCoy III was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended both the University of Massachusetts and the University of San Francisco. After more than 20 years of trudging, and struggling with addiction and periods of incarceration, Rhody changed his mind and began his amazing journey of “living.” Since his final incarceration ended in 2000, Rhody has dedicated his life to three pursuits: (1) becoming and remaining aware, healthy, and purposeful, (2) continuing to develop into the best father possible for his three children: Leah , Rhody IV, and Tre’ McCoy, and (3) becoming a model member in the community. Since 2007, Rhody has served as Program Associate for The National Trust for the Development of African American Men. He is also a Board Member of Positive Directions Equals Change, and a member of the African-American Action Network.

John Ely is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department of Saint Mary’s College of California. Professor Ely supports service learning courses in which his students interact with recent parolees, and is developing another course in Spring 2010 which would bring students inside San Quentin to support the work of The Trust Program.

Peter Freund, Associate Professor, and Chair of the Art and Art History Department at Saint Mary's College, has taken an active role in the development of the San Quentin Media Project, working with film crew members Jess, Tamara, Diana and Shane to create a full-fledged film school within the walls of San Quentin.

Barbara A. McGraw is a Professor of Social Ethics, Law, and Public Life and also the Director of the Center for Engaged Religious Pluralism at Saint Mary's College. She spoke to her personal experiences working with prisoners along with her institutional-based effort to shift towards a culture that acknowledges, in the words of Sister Helen Prejean, “people are more than the worst thing they have ever done in their lives."

Photos of the panelists (from left to right: Judge Gail Bereola, Jesse Dana, Rhody McCoy, Tamara Perkins) provided by staff photographer Quincy Adamo of the St Mary's College of California "Collegian."

Finding The Right Camera: Con't ... Finally

2009-09-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Last post I talked at length about using the Grass Valley Infinity, which we were going to be using inside San Quentin prison. But production is a fluid thing, and the model we got for the shoot went down the first weekend we had it. There was a problem with the line level inputs on the camera, which needed to be handled at the factory. Grass Valley was great once I alerted them to the issue, but I needed another camera that day so I picked up a HPX2000 from VMI and kept that for the rest of the shoot. The panasonic handled everything beautifully and it became our go to camera for those long days walking around the prison. The HPX turned out to be a better fit for our production; even though it is a lower resolution camera than the Infinity, I found the greater dynamic range and highlight handling, coupled with the P2 workflow, which is so seemless in FCP to be the deciding factors. In a studio I may have come to a different choice, but hey San Quentin is far from a studio.

Jesse
--
DP/Producer - The Trust

-- Posted from my iPhone

The Trust Presents at ACLU of NorCal Field Committee Meeting

2009-09-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

We were graciously invited to speak tonight at the board meeting for ACLU of Northern California's Field Committee Meeting. It was an honor to be in the presence of such a knowledgeable and passionate group of activists. We learned a great deal about the many things we as citizens can do to safeguard our civil liberties. One member even shared how his presence on behalf of a local youth facing expulsion resulted in first a delay in the hearing, and finally a dismissal.

A couple of the chapters have already asked about us coming out to present to their membership. We were already fans of the ACLU, and want to send out extra love and thanks for their support!

The ACLU of Northern California is a co-sponsor of the Equal Justice Society screening of The Trust on Oct. 14 - more to come soon!

Berkeley TV Profiling The Trust's Director, Tamara Perkins

2009-09-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

A few of The Trust team members along with the film's mentor and advisor, Arnold Perkins,

gathered outside San Quentin State Prison's East Gate this morning. Berkeley TV's Tracey Quezada and her crew came out to meet our group and ask a few questions before we went in to our Friday San Quentin Media Project classes. Lt. Sam Robinson, San Quentin's Public Information Officer - the man in charge of all media in and around San Quentin - even came out to say Hello and express his support for the The Trust film and San Quentin Media Project.

More on the San Quentin Media Project soon. You can see some of their work at YouTube.com/sanquentinmedia.

Rhythmix Inauguration Event

2009-01-21T10:45:00.001-08:00

Yesterday at the Rhythmix Cultural Works center in Alameda we were invited to share our trailer and discuss our project with an excited and motivated group of people from MoveOn.Org!

I knew the event would be a good venue for our message, but I didn't realize just how many people would attend! There must have been at least 350 people there, all eating, drinking, sharing and celebrating the beginning of a new era for the country. Positive change was the theme and our film fit in perfectly.

After watching President Obama's speech, there was a moving performance by local youth group "I Go". Their piece resonated with me as it addressed many of the same messages we touch on in making The Trust. Especially the challenges of rising above violence, poverty, and criminality. Powerful messages from a very talented group.

When the time came to show our trailer, I was excited to hear all the comments made by the audience. While it played the audience spoke out in agreement with what our experts said and nodded in approval at all the right moments. After the lights came up, we had a roaring applause.

Tamara, Jesse and Camisha took questions and comments from the audience. One man suggested the need to reach out to Governor Schwarzenegger and demand more programming and reform for prisoners. Others expressed shock at the statistics included in the film, especially the 70% recidivism rate. Another mentioned the need to research best practices in German prisons, which have low recidivism rates, exploring why some methods of incarceration work better than ours.

Although we only had about 5 minutes to take questions, Jesse was able to end the moment by asking the audience to engage with the project by checking our website and making a donation.

In the end, it was a fantastic event. A big Thank You to Jennifer Holmes at Rhythmix for making it possible and to MoveOn.Org for supporting the film! We hope to have many more successful events like this in the future!

-- Simron

Finding The Right Camera:Part One of ?

2009-01-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

Finding the right camera for a job is a big part of my job as a Documentary Cinematographer; just as picking a certain film stock and processing is important to a narrative story, a particular video camera can go along way to defining the look of a doc. Of course there are still a few people with the luxury of shooting docs on film, but on a project with the scope and time line of The Trust it just doesn't make sense to go that route.

My background is in narrative film production, which initially lead me to use something I'd use on an indie film. From the beginning Tamara and I have wanted to create a look that gave the audience enough distance from the men to view them objectively, for us that meant shallower depth of field and a generally more cinematic look then you normally see on a doc. Over the last year or so that line of thought took me from a JVC GY-HD110 with a Brevis35 lens adapter all the way to the RED Camera in search of the right balance between look and functionality.

Unfortunately none of the cameras I considered were up to the task; the JVC's HDV footage just doesn't hold up in post if you don't nail the settings in camera, and that doesn't always happen when you are run and gun through a prison with mixed sodium vapor lighting! And the RED, despite being a great studio camera for the money, is still not ready for the mission critical doc environment. Other small-camera-with-adapter solutions like the HVX-200 or EX1 paired with a Letus Ultimate are just not realistic for hand held shooting over long periods of time, which is definitely the reality of shooting inside San Quentin.

I initially stayed away from ENG cameras because the price point was out of our reach and I was married to shooting 24p to help the audience see the men of the trust with a perspective not achievable in 30i. I'd toyed with the idea of an HDX-900 but the cost of tape stock and Deck over the course of a two year production was just too much.

Then Panasonic released their new HPX line and I thought I'd found the answer, but the 3000 is just too far outside our current budget and the 2000 doesn't deliver the full raster 1080p I need to insure we are ready for theatrical distribution. On top of that the cost per gb of the P2 media is still steep for an independent film, at least in the quantity necessary to shoot all day in San Quentin without a data wrangler.

That brings us up to last month. Trying to squeeze an HPX-2000 into our budget and settling for 720p. When I stumbled upon the Thompson Grass Valley Infinity DMC 1000/20. The camera hasn't had a lot of press and had flown completely under my radar. I called Joe Pettit at Snader and Associates in San Rafael to set up a demo; I was surprised how well it handled. The infinity is competitive with the HPX-3000 for about $20k less, and the Rev Pro media is way more affordable, a 35gb disc is only $50!

After spending an hour running through the menus with a chip chart I took the camera outside into some hard sun and torched the JPEG2000 codec. Shooting a dark shadow cut through a patch of bright sun light I was able to hold clean detail across the image. I took the footage home and pushed it around in after effects; the image held up well to color correction and I was able to pull up the mids quite a bit before any grain became apparent. I'll post some screen grabs as soon as I can make them.

The real test will come later this week when I take the Infinity inside San Quentin and see how it holds up during the heat of production. I'll post an update when that happens to let you know my thoughts.

Jesse
Cinematographer | Producer

Come to the Rhythmix Cultural Center Inauguration Celebration

2009-01-14T16:10:00.000-08:00

The Trust will be highlighted at the Rhythmix Cultural Center Inauguration Celebration on Jan 20th! Come support the film!!

UPDATE:

There couldn't have been a better venue to debut the Intro Trailer to a large audience.

We've held private "in-progress" screenings before, but this was by far the largest audience we've had; it was exciting, and a little nerve racking, to see our work through their eyes.

Obama's inaugural address opened the event followed by spoken word and music performances, and of course us! It was a packed house and we received many thanks for the work we're doing. More importantly though, we had the opportunity to echo Obama's words and ask our community to pitch in and help us complete this important film by volunteering time or money to support the project.

All in all, a very successful day of outreach :-)

Jesse
Cinematographer | Producer

New Introductory Trailer! trt 7:27

2009-01-13T17:51:00.000-08:00

An Introduction to the Film

2009-01-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

The Trust is a character-driven feature length film set inside San Quentin State Prison and surrounding Bay Area communities. It tells the story of Ernest Morgan, Darnell Hill and Sean Williams, all inmates and participants in The National Trust, a peer-driven prison program that helps men transform from social liabilities into assets for themselves, their families and their communities.

The film’s goal is to create a national dialogue on the issues of incarceration through these three stories. Each man’s narrative represents a unique aspect of the path to prison and journey back into society. Can the men find redemption for their past? Will they be able to overcome the stigmas attached to incarceration on the outside? The film will address these questions and more while engaging a wide audience on the broader consequences of incarceration.

Characters

Ernest Morgan was imprisoned for life at age 17; he is now 39 and a leader in The Trust Program. Twenty-two years ago Ernest killed a family member in a fit of fear and rage. Since that time, he has struggled for internal forgiveness and has found purpose as a mentor for other men attempting to surmount their own demons.

Darnell Hill, aged 39, was sentenced to 10 years to Life in prison at 22 and is now The Trust’s head instructor. Darnell was convicted along side his father on two counts of kidnap robbery. During his time behind bars he has endeavored to redefine himself outside of his father’s shadow. He offers his students a model for a path out of the generational cycle of crime.

Sean Williams is 28 and was imprisoned for robbery. After being released from San Quentin he finds himself in a state of constant anxiety. Every meal with his wife, every hug from his 2-year old daughter and every glimmer of success is shaded with the fear that one false move could send him back to prison. Looming in the background are bills he has not dealt with in years, the frustration of finding a job and the pace of life outside, which leaves him a feeling a step behind.

Current Status

The Trust began with nearly two years of pre-production and research. In that time, Director and Producer Tamara Perkins has established extraordinary access through her trusted relationships with the men of The National Trust program and the San Quentin Warden and prison staff. She has also assembled a remarkable team of filmmakers and support crew to achieve the project goals.

Currently, the film is in full-scale production. Production began in January 2009 and will continue through November 2010.

Thus far, the project has raised $20,000 in individual contributions, $30,000 from the San Francisco Foundation and $15,000 from smaller foundation grants. We also have $57,500 of pending grant applications, which we hope to receive in the coming months. We have approached a crucial period for fundraising and are seeking funds to support interviews with family members of the incarcerated, development of an interactive website, educational materials for outreach, and funds to help with community screening events.

Trust Team

As the leader on the project, Tamara Perkins brings experience in directing and producing policy-based initiative and instructional DVDs as well as, narrative and documentary films. Prior to starting The Trust, Tamara worked for over a year with The San Quentin Trust program before being asked by the participants to help tell their story.

The Trust’s Director of Photography and Co-Producer Jesse Dana began working with Tamara to establish the look and story of the project two years ago; he brings a broad range of cinematography experience to the project from commercial pieces to feature length narrative work. Jesse is also mentoring five inmates trained in filmmaking as part of The San Quentin Media Project. These five inmates will be collecting internal footage for the documentary, including interviewing fellow inmates, to provide a unique insider perspective of life behind bars.

The Trust team also includes Executive Producer Laurel Ladevich, an independent filmmaker who has worked on dozens of documentaries, feature films and television movies and Editor, Diana J. Brodie who has over two decades of experience as an editor including 10 years freelancing on reality shows, corporate videos, and feature documentaries.

Welcome to The Trust Documentary Production Blog!

2009-01-13T15:19:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone!

You've found the official blog for the documentary film: The Trust: Learning Trust Finding Hope.

Check back regularly to find out what's happening throughout the film's production.

Thanks!
-Jesse Dana,
Producer/Cinematographer for The Trust Documentary