[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":194},["ShallowReactive",2],{"article:abolitionist-futures-towards-an-anti-carceral-aesthetics-in-documentary-film":3,"page:48":121,"page:321":157},{"id":4,"slug":5,"title":6,"excerpt":7,"date":8,"year":9,"formattedDate":10,"typeIds":11,"typeNames":14,"wordCount":17,"isBlack":18,"image":19,"contributors":26,"contentHtml":31,"finalContentHtml":32,"creditsHtml":33,"pdfUrl":34,"vimeo":34,"contributorBios":35,"seo":40},622,"abolitionist-futures-towards-an-anti-carceral-aesthetics-in-documentary-film","Abolitionist Futures: Towards an anti-carceral aesthetics in documentary film","\u003Cp>Sara Wylie critiques the carceral image, and outlines a set of provisional aesthetic strategies practiced by filmmakers working towards a future free of prisons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n","2021-03-01T12:37:36",2021,"Mar 2021",[12,13],6,7,[15,16],"Moving Image","Essay",3039,false,{"src":20,"srcset":21,"width":22,"height":23,"alt":24,"lqip":25},"https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-50.jpg","https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-50-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-50-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-50.jpg 1920w",1920,1080,"Sara Wylie Feature Image","data:image\u002Fwebp;base64,UklGRmYAAABXRUJQVlA4IFoAAACQBACdASogABIAPu1kqE2ppaOiMAgBMB2JZQAAW7wRdK8Jc87YwW7VArJ5OIAA\u002Fm6aRwqebQBhFInFmsiRMWjRe2Lc248DeEnLzmE8XLYjUDCaEeW5bGsAAAA=",[27],{"id":28,"name":29,"slug":30},616,"Sara Wylie","sara-wylie","\n\u003Cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003Cspan class=\"lqip-wrap\" style=\"background-image:url(&quot;data:image\u002Fsvg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\u002F\u002Fwww.w3.org\u002F2000\u002Fsvg' viewBox='0 0 320 180'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\u002F%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\u002F%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\u002F%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\u002F%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\u002F%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\u002F%3E%3C\u002Ffilter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\u002Fwebp;base64,UklGRnYAAABXRUJQVlA4IGoAAABwBACdASogABIAPu1ur1IppiQiqAgBMB2JaQABCYO+PSiRzK+uWbT4XccdwAD+9c\u002FR2dJunMj8uu3gjG9HsmY78oUwdp4NN9Ntxb2U8pYT8wFajo6kL5hxaBA\u002FPVHMNvinJ6VdzTOgAAAA'\u002F%3E%3C\u002Fsvg%3E&quot;)\">\u003Cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-100.jpg\" alt=\"Abolitionist Aesthetics Feature Image\" class=\"lqip wp-image-637\" srcset=\"https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-100.jpg 1920w, https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-100-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-100-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-feature-100-100x56.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \u002F>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cfigcaption>Garrett Bradley, \u003Cem>Time\u003C\u002Fem> (2020; Amazon Studios), digital.\u003C\u002Ffigcaption>\u003C\u002Ffigure>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">“\u003Cem>It is easier to imagine the end of the world \u003C\u002Fem>\u003Cbr>\u003Cem>than it is to imagine a world without prisons.\u003C\u002Fem>”\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-1-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-1-622' content='Jackie Wang,&nbsp;\u003Cem>Carceral Capitalism\u003C\u002Fem>, (South Pasadena: Semiotext(e), 2018), 297.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>1\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"has-text-align-right wp-block-paragraph\">– Jackie Wang\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cdiv style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\">\u003C\u002Fdiv>\n\n\n\n\u003Ch4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003Cstrong>The Dispossessed\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two children are exposed to the idea of prison for the first time one day in school. They have never heard of prisons before because prisons don’t exist on their planet, and they are curious as to why one person’s freedom would be deprived by another. As an experiment, they lock one of their classmates up in a make-shift cell, finding themselves becoming increasingly violent with the power they now possess over this individual. After thirty hours, the boy in the cell is unwell, curled up on the ground and physically ill. The children abandon the experiment deeply disturbed by the state of their prisoner and the power imprisonment wields. This scene is from Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1974 sci-fi classic \u003Cem>The Dispossessed,\u003C\u002Fem> a novel within which the anarchist planet Anarres has eliminated prisons and punishment in a rare depiction of an abolitionist future. In the realm of moving images, very few artworks have taken up the imaginative thinking needed to undo carceral structures and envision such post-prison futures. To do so calls for an \u003Cem>abolitionist aesthetics\u003C\u002Fem>: an entirely new visual language that must represent, in carceral geographer Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s words, the “fleshly and material presence of social life lived differently.”\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-2-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-2-622' content='Clément Petitjean,  “Prisons and Class Warfare: An Interview with Ruth Wilson Gilmore,” in \u003Cem>Verso Blog\u003C\u002Fem>, August 2, 2018, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.versobooks.com\u002Fblogs\u002F3954-prisons-and-class-warfare-an-interview-with-ruthwilson-Gilmore\">https:\u002F\u002Fwww.versobooks.com\u002Fblogs\u002F3954-prisons-and-class-warfare-an-interview-with-ruthwilson-Gilmore\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>2\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> As a filmmaker, I am interested in how an abolitionist aesthetics could create a radically different visuality to bring about these new worlds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cdiv style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\">\u003C\u002Fdiv>\n\n\n\n\u003Ch4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003Cstrong>The state of things \u002F abolition now\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, a powerful and sustained people’s movement has risen up in the context of long-standing anti-Black racism and police brutality in the US and Canada.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-3-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-3-622' content='&nbsp;In Canada, this includes the police-involved murders of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Chantel Moore and most recently Kuya Chester in “Vancouver” on January 5, 2021.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>3\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> The organizing of Black Lives Matter, allies and accomplices has resulted in the dissolution of the Minneapolis police department, and increased pressure to defund police and hold law enforcement accountable across numerous cities. The concept of police and prison abolition has since been mainstreamed in a way that many abolitionists never thought they would see in their lifetime.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-4-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-4-622' content='Abolition in this sense is a call to end all carceral systems, including police and prisons, as they function as infrastructures of colonialism and white supremacy premised on the continued harm and deaths of Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>4\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> Decarceration with the aim of abolition has never been more relevant, as the incarcerated battle constant COVID outbreaks and organize recurring hunger strikes in protest of dire prison conditions.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-5-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-5-622' content='Outbreaks remain active and there are over 5,000 COVID-19 cases in jails and prisons across Canada since the start of the pandemic. See: Alyshah Hasham and Akrit Michael, “Maplehurst’s 130 active COVID cases make it Ontario’s worst jail outbreak of the pandemic,” \u003Cem>Toronto Star\u003C\u002Fem>, January 25, 2021, \u003Ca rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.thestar.com\u002Fnews\u002Fgta\u002F2021\u002F01\u002F25\u002Fmaplehursts-130-active-covid-cases-make-it-ontarios-worst-jail-outbreak-of-the-pandemic.html\" target=\"_blank\">https:\u002F\u002Fwww.thestar.com\u002Fnews\u002Fgta\u002F2021\u002F01\u002F25\u002Fmaplehursts-130-active-covid-cases-make-it-ontarios-worst-jail-outbreak-of-the-pandemic.html\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>5\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Black women, including Angela Y. Davis, Miriame Kaba and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, have long led the abolitionist cause. Many of them point to the modern penitentiary and its relatively recent (as in late 19th century recent) invention to demystify it as a socially constructed system that we have the power to unmake.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-6-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-6-622' content='&#8216;Relatively&#8217; as in coming out of the earlier 19th century. See: Rachel Kushner,“Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind,” \u003Cem>The New York Times,\u003C\u002Fem> April 17 2019, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nytimes.com\u002F2019\u002F04\u002F17\u002Fmagazine\u002Fprison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html\">https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nytimes.com\u002F2019\u002F04\u002F17\u002Fmagazine\u002Fprison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>6\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> Gilmore further argues that abolitionism is not simply about the destruction or absence of the prison, rather it is about building the \u003Cem>presence\u003C\u002Fem> of infrastructures of social equality and care.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-7-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-7-622' content='Rachel Kushner, “Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind.”' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>7\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> As she explains, abolitionists do not expect prisons to disappear overnight, but instead recognize that nothing will change if incarceration continues to be offered up as the only solution. Expanding on the ideas of the abolitionist W.E.B. Du Bois, Gilmore believes that “abolition is a theory of change, it’s a theory of social life. It’s about making things.”\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-8-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-8-622' content='Clément Petitjean, “Prisons and Class Warfare: An Interview with Ruth Wilson Gilmore.”' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>8\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> As image-makers, we should consider this a call to action.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I consider here an emergent \u003Cem>abolitionist aesthetics \u003C\u002Fem>in non-fiction film, in response to the carceral aesthetics at work in documentary media. I focus on this genre in order to challenge its far-from-objective claim on capturing ‘the real’ and its role in upholding certain social logics, and also because I am a documentary filmmaker committed to the abolition of the prison industrial complex. The elements of carceral aesthetics are outlined and contrasted with the visual strategies in documentaries like Brett Story&#8217;s \u003Cem>The Prison in Twelve Landscapes\u003C\u002Fem> (2016) and Garrett Bradley’s \u003Cem>Time \u003C\u002Fem>(2020). Story and writer Pooja Rangan have recently troubled the &#8216;the new true crime’ genre and advocate for documentary work to take up abolitionist politics. In response to their call, the abolitionist aesthetics\u003Cem> \u003C\u002Fem>outlined below should be taken as just a few methods by which documentarians can dismantle the &#8216;truths&#8217; of the carceral images that appeal to the white imaginary and cooperate with and\u002For legitimize state violence.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-9-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-9-622' content='Story was my MFA thesis supervisor and her thinking on prison films was influential in my own development as a filmmaker; my most recent short documentary “The Garden Collective” is about the Prison for Women Memorial Collective, a group of formerly incarcerated women, working to build a memorial on the former grounds of the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>9\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> Abolitionist documentary must then be invested in supporting forms of transformative justice that reckon with these institutions of white supremacy, in order to create new imaginaries for a police- and prison-free future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cdiv style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\">\u003C\u002Fdiv>\n\n\n\n\u003Ch4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003Cstrong>Carceral aesthetics\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carceral aesthetics refer to the status quo images of our current prison-industrial complex: images of police violence and the horrors that take place behind bars, largely subjected upon racialized individuals. These are the common prison documentaries like \u003Cem>The House I Live In\u003C\u002Fem> (dir. Eugene Jarecki, 2012); \u003Cem>The Central Park Five\u003C\u002Fem> (dir. Ken Burns, 2012); \u003Cem>Into the Abyss\u003C\u002Fem> (dir. Wernor Herzog, 2011); and the wildly popular true crime documentary series such as \u003Cem>Making a Murderer\u003C\u002Fem>, \u003Cem>Cold Case Files, \u003C\u002Fem>and \u003Cem>Cops\u003C\u002Fem> to name a few. Images in these works naturalize prisons and police in our visual landscape and project criminality onto bodies made vulnerable by systemic racism and inequality — without questioning where that vulnerability stems from in the first place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the first films to emerge in this genre was Frederick Wiseman’s seminal direct cinema work \u003Cem>Titicut Follies \u003C\u002Fem>(1967), which asks the viewer to bear witness to the shockingly inhumane treatment of those incarcerated at the Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts. It would become the forerunner of the ‘humanizing’ prison film, built on the conceit that the audience \u003Cem>needs to see\u003C\u002Fem> the violence of carceral institutions, because “if only the public actually knew what was going on” then things might change.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-10-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-10-622' content='Brett Story, “Against a Humanizing Prison Cinema: the Prison in 12 Landscapes and the Politics of Abolition Imagery,” in \u003Cem>Routledge International Handbook of Visual Criminology\u003C\u002Fem>. Routledge, eds. Michelle Brown and Eamonn Carrabine, (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017): 455.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>10\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> The magical thinking of such films reinforces a reformist visual strategy, just like the reformist policies often proposed by politicians that abolitionists advocate against (i.e. police body cameras, citizen review boards).\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-11-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-11-622' content='These are often referred to as “reformist reforms” as opposed to “non-reformist reforms” aka abolition. See: Critical Resistance, “Reformist reforms vs. abolitionist steps in policing,” 2020: \u003Ca rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fcriticalresistance.org\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2020\u002F08\u002FCR_NoCops_reform_vs_abolition_REV2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">http:\u002F\u002Fcriticalresistance.org\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2020\u002F08\u002FCR_NoCops_reform_vs_abolition_REV2020.pdf\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>11\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> Relying on viewer empathy, carceral aesthetics point to the system’s horrors and at most, demand incremental changes within existing institutions. ‘Humanizing’ prison stories lean on hollow gestures like firing ‘bad apple’ officers or getting rid of private (but not public) prisons, which become temporary fixes within infrastructures designed for violence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Story and scholar Pooja Rangan together write about ‘the new true crime’ documentary phenomenon as a troublingly effective extension of the criminal justice system.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-12-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-12-622' content='Pooja Rangan and Brett Story, “Four propositions on True Crime and Abolition,” \u003Cem>World Records, \u003C\u002Fem>no.5 (2020): \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fvols.worldrecordsjournal.org\u002F99\u002F02\">https:\u002F\u002Fvols.worldrecordsjournal.org\u002F99\u002F02\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>12\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> This truth-seeking genre pursues justice for the innocent, and in doing so reifies the social truth that \u003Cem>\u003Cstrong>guilty = bad\u002Fimmoral\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fem>, and\u003Cstrong> \u003Cem>punishment via law-and-order = good\u002Fnatural\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fstrong>. Series like \u003Cem>The Jinx\u003C\u002Fem> (HBO, 2015) have filmmakers so actively involved in these pursuits that they become unofficial arms of the law, managing to obtain the guilty confession that evaded authorities. In these story arcs, state violence via police and prisons, is portrayed as deserved and is thus legitimized. Guilty pleasure binge watching then releases audiences from having to confront the wider injustices at the root of these crime dramas. As Rangan and Story put forth, abolitionism disputes the false equivalence between committing a crime and causing harm: as a socially constructed category, “crime is a lie” and non-fiction media must challenge claims to (harmful) carceral ‘truths.’\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-13-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-13-622' content='Ibid.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>13\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> In response to their call for documentary work that enacts abolitionist politics, the visual strategies in the films below are part of the emergent abolitionist aesthetics that embody these principles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cdiv style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\">\u003C\u002Fdiv>\n\n\n\n\u003Ch4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003Cstrong>Strange-making Landscapes\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As poet\u002Fabolitionist\u002Fdreamer Jackie Wang notes, we have a serious problem when our strategies “reinforce a framework that renders revolutionary and insurgent politics unimaginable.”\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-14-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-14-622' content='Jackie Wang, \u003Cem>Carceral Capitalism\u003C\u002Fem>, 264.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>14\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> Carceral aesthetics frame the symptoms of a deeply unethical system, but do little to ask if this system could ever look like anything else. Abolitionist aesthetics instead dislocate the carceral by demanding a different visuality, a new set of images for an entirely reimagined set of relations. The most appropriate piece to examine here first would be Story’s documentary \u003Cem>The Prison in Twelve Landscapes\u003C\u002Fem>. Writing about her film, she discusses the dangers of other prison films naturalizing violent images which in turn reproduce the order of the prison and the logic that prisons keep us safe from ‘dangerous criminal elements.’ She argues that rather than asking audiences to passively bear witness, as films like \u003Cem>Titicut Follies \u003C\u002Fem>do, our cultural work should aim to ‘make strange’ the normalized imagery of the prison in order to question its legitimacy.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-15-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-15-622' content='Brett Story, “Against a Humanizing Prison Cinema,” 456.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>15\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003Cspan class=\"lqip-wrap\" style=\"background-image:url(&quot;data:image\u002Fsvg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns='http:\u002F\u002Fwww.w3.org\u002F2000\u002Fsvg' viewBox='0 0 320 180'%3E%3Cfilter id='b' color-interpolation-filters='sRGB'%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\u002F%3E%3CfeColorMatrix values='1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 100 -1' result='s'\u002F%3E%3CfeFlood x='0' y='0' width='100%25' height='100%25'\u002F%3E%3CfeComposite operator='out' in='s'\u002F%3E%3CfeComposite in2='SourceGraphic'\u002F%3E%3CfeGaussianBlur stdDeviation='20'\u002F%3E%3C\u002Ffilter%3E%3Cimage width='100%25' height='100%25' x='0' y='0' preserveAspectRatio='none' style='filter: url(%23b);' href='data:image\u002Fwebp;base64,UklGRooAAABXRUJQVlA4IH4AAABwBACdASogABIAPuFgq02opiSiMAwBEBwJYwC3uCHenCv0jlYZ4iVaV8qwgAD+roftHQfzXTZociqcPffQGltqxE3pUe8U8RnWWb7bH89pB0XYfMqppvUoOrwPeDj+SWGYP4eqkA1m8QcsXhknXgMqbZj+8YxsTEkeBQa1QAA='\u002F%3E%3C\u002Fsvg%3E&quot;)\">\u003Cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-secondary100.jpg\" alt=\"The Prison in Twelve Landscapes Still\" class=\"lqip wp-image-638\" srcset=\"https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-secondary100.jpg 1920w, https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-secondary100-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-secondary100-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2021\u002F02\u002Fsarawylie-secondary100-100x56.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \u002F>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cfigcaption>Brett Story, \u003Cem>The Prison in Twelve Landscapes\u003C\u002Fem> (2016; Oh Ratface Films), digital.\u003C\u002Ffigcaption>\u003C\u002Ffigure>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By focusing on twelve scenes of carceral power quietly at work in American society, Story&#8217;s film exposes the diffuse extent of the prison system’s violence. The associative vignettes, in which we (almost) never see a prison, speak for themselves by sharing glimpses into the lives of affected individuals in each landscape: from the absurdity of a woman who served jail time due to fines over an improperly secured garbage lid, to an overly-eager PR person giving an enthusiastic tour of the new hyper-securitized Quicken Loans headquarters in gentrified Detroit. We watch an outdoor chess game in Washington Square Park where one skilled chess player shares that he and many players have honed their chess game in prison. In the final scene, the prison at last appears: the camera glides in slow-motion through unassuming trim-lawned suburban roads until a fortress-like structure gradually enters the frame. By making strange the familiar tropes of American incarceration, the violence of the prison is revealed to be all around us, made visible in ways carceral geography seeks to obscure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cdiv style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\">\u003C\u002Fdiv>\n\n\n\n\u003Ch4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003Cstrong>Beyond Innocence\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003Cem>Time \u003C\u002Fem>is a film that disrupts the innocent\u002Fguilty narrative and the validity of the prison system itself. The doc tells the story of Fox Rich, a self-identified abolitionist, throughout her pursuit to get her husband out of prison. The film does not dwell on the couple’s crime from twenty years ago, nor are they ever pictured behind bars. Instead, director Garrett Bradley emphasizes Fox’s struggle to free her husband from his sixty-year sentence, positioning both of them as survivors of the incredibly racist and dehumanizing prison system. Bradley deploys a striking visual strategy: shot in black and white, featuring cinematic Dutch angles and slow zooms that convey an emotionally compelling (but not overly-dramatic) affect, mixed with remarkable DV-cam home footage shot by a young Fox, sent as letters to Robert in prison. As filmmakers and collaborators, both Rich and Bradley actively resist carceral aesthetics. Instead they foreground intimate scenes of deep love between the couple, and the family’s shared joy and celebrations, buoyed by Rich’s enduring emotional strength.&nbsp;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We also witness the immense reproductive and emotional labour placed on Rich’s shoulders via the carceral state. Ruth Wilson Gilmore notes that “prisons wear out places by wearing out people, irrespective of whether they have done time.”\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-16-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-16-622' content='Ruth Wilson Gilmore, \u003Cem>Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California \u003C\u002Fem>(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 17.' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>16\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> The daily and almost mundane toll taken on Rich via the prison is revealed in the emotional arc of one scene in which she speaks on the phone with a judge’s office, waiting to hear back about her husband’s potential release date. Her tone cycles from polite patience, to exasperated laughing at the clerk’s rejection, to shouting in pure frustration at the indignity of the system, then returning calmly to the work in front of her. In \u003Cem>Time,\u003C\u002Fem> Bradley exposes how deeply punitive and harmful the prison industrial complex is to the incarcerated and their families every single day — regardless of guilt or innocence — bringing new meaning to ‘time served.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cdiv style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\">\u003C\u002Fdiv>\n\n\n\n\u003Ch4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003Cstrong>Solidarity &gt; empathy\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is important here to address empathy as a cinematic tactic, usually stirred up by an individual’s struggle that begins and ends inside the theatre. Movies, as the oft-repeated Roger Ebert quote tells us, are empathy machines: the viewer bears witness to the protagonist’s story that often emphasizes pain or loss, identifies with it from their own experience and the filmmaker’s duty is done.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-17-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-17-622' content='&nbsp;Roger Ebert, “Video: Roger Ebert on Empathy,” \u003Cem>Rogerebert.com, \u003C\u002Fem>April 4, 2018, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.rogerebert.com\u002Fempathy\u002Fvideo-roger-ebert-on-empathy\">https:\u002F\u002Fwww.rogerebert.com\u002Fempathy\u002Fvideo-roger-ebert-on-empathy\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>17\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> Scholar Robin D.G. Kelley notes how this tactic often relies on “the problem of innocence” as described above, fostering empathy for the ‘innocent,’ and rarely for the ‘guilty’ as \u003Cem>Time \u003C\u002Fem>does.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-18-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-18-622' content='Robin D.G. Kelley, Jack Amariglio and Lucas Wilson, “Solidarity is not a Market Exchange: An RM Interview with Robin D.G. Kelley part 1,” \u003Cem>Rethinking Marxism\u003C\u002Fem>, 30:4, 568–598, accessed through\u003Cbr>\u003Ca rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fblack-ink.info\u002F2020\u002F01\u002F16\u002Fsolidarity-is-not-a-market-exchange-an-interview-with-robin-d-g-kelley\u002F\" target=\"_blank\">https:\u002F\u002Fblack-ink.info\u002F2020\u002F01\u002F16\u002Fsolidarity-is-not-a-market-exchange-an-interview-with-robin-d-g-kelley\u002F\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>18\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Expressions and representations of solidarity, connected to IRL organizing, move beyond individualistic empathy and can be called abolitionist aesthetics. \u003Cem>The Prison in Twelve Landscapes \u003C\u002Fem>includes striking shaky-camera clips of solidarity protests in the streets of Baltimore after Freddie Gray’s death by police in 2015. The shared rage and pain is palpable; these images, put in contrast with those of a zealously militarized police force, serve as a powerful rebuke of the police state’s legitimacy. Similar scenes are echoed in the documentary \u003Cem>Whose Streets?\u003C\u002Fem> (dir. Sabaah Folayan &amp; Damon Davis, 2017) about the Ferguson uprising after Mike Brown’s death, told from first-hand experiences of activists on the ground. Recently, the hybrid doc \u003Cem>The Infiltrators \u003C\u002Fem>(dir. Cristina Ibarra &amp; Alex Rivera, 2019)\u003Cem>,\u003C\u002Fem> features a powerful display of solidarity: a group of young undocumented immigrant activists purposely get detained by ICE in order to\u003Cem> \u003C\u002Fem>organize and free other detainees from the inside.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-19-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-19-622' content='\u003Cem>The Infiltrators\u003C\u002Fem> was discussed as an abolitionist film in Brett Story and Pooja Rangan’s talk,\u003Cem> “\u003C\u002Fem>True Crime & The Case for Abolition Documentary.”' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>19\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Robin D.G. Kelley argues that solidarity, not empathy, is a more powerful and mobilizing connection for political change. Solidarity does not demand recognition of one’s self within the other, instead it comes from “the people you \u003Cem>don’t \u003C\u002Fem>recognize. The people who you \u003Cem>don’t\u003C\u002Fem> see yourself in.”\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-20-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-20-622' content='Robin D.G. Kelley, Jack Amariglio and Lucas Wilson, “Solidarity is not a Market Exchange.”' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>20\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> Fred Moten builds off of this distinction of solidarity as “fundamentally a modality of selflessness,” and a call to be in constant struggle with each other based on a recognition of every person’s dignity and humanity.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-21-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-21-622' content='Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, “Wildcat the Totality – Fred Moten And Stefano Harney Revisit \u003Cem>The Undercommons\u003C\u002Fem> In A Time Of Pandemic And Rebellion (Part 1),” July 4, 2020, \u003Cem>Millennials are Killing Capitalism, \u003C\u002Fem>podcast, mp3 audio, 01:01:54,&nbsp; \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmillennialsarekillingcapitalism.libsyn.com\u002Fwildcat-the-totality-fred-moten-and-stefano-harney-revisit-the-undercommons-in-a-time-of-pandemic-and-rebellion-part-1\">https:\u002F\u002Fmillennialsarekillingcapitalism.libsyn.com\u002Fwildcat-the-totality-fred-moten-and-stefano-harney-revisit-the-undercommons-in-a-time-of-pandemic-and-rebellion-part-1\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>21\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> In other words, empathy goes nowhere unless directly connected to collective action for systemic change.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cdiv style=\"height:40px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\">\u003C\u002Fdiv>\n\n\n\n\u003Ch4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003Cstrong>Abolitionist dreaming\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How else could moving images connect to and enact solidarity? This is an open-ended question that deserves further consideration and exploration. We should also consider how our artistic practices behind the camera could be organized to build solidarity and connect to an ethics of care (possibly by using methods of participatory cinema as \u003Cem>Time \u003C\u002Fem>does). Abolitionism is a revolutionary strategy that requires mass solidarity for wholesale social transformation. A movement’s images then cannot be built on the tenuous heartstrings of empathy alone — the images must be situated within the revolution itself.&nbsp;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recalling Le Guin: does it still seem so impossible that incarceration could become a completely alien idea to future generations? (Is it really that much harder to imagine than \u003Cem>the end of the world\u003C\u002Fem>?) Miriame Kaba tells us that finding an alternative to prisons and police will not come from a single great plan or person — abolition is a collective dreaming process, in which all kinds of art-making play an important role.\u003Cspan id='easy-footnote-22-622'>\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cspan class='easy-footnote'>\u003Csup id='easy-footnote-22-622' content=' She points to Monet’s Water Lilies as a point of inspiration for her work. See: Emily Breidenbach, “Envisioning an Abolitionist Future,” \u003Cem>Sixty Inches from the Center, \u003C\u002Fem>February 20, 2018. \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fsixtyinchesfromcenter.org\u002Fenvisioning-an-abolitionist-future\u002F\">https:\u002F\u002Fsixtyinchesfromcenter.org\u002Fenvisioning-an-abolitionist-future\u002F\u003C\u002Fa>' v-tippy='{ allowHTML: true }'>22\u003C\u002Fsup>\u003C\u002Fspan> The abolitionist aesthetics outlined here offer a few possible methods to disturb and unmake the carceral space in our collective imaginary. As image-makers, we ought to turn to formerly and currently incarcerated people, artists, activists, workers and thinkers to collaborate on the radical dreamwork needed to see these abolitionist futures into being.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\n\n\u003Cdiv style=\"height:60px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\">\u003C\u002Fdiv>\n\n\n\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cdiv class=\"easy-footnote-title\">\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Notes:\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\u003C\u002Fdiv>\u003Col class=\"easy-footnotes-wrapper\">\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-1-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Jackie Wang,&nbsp;\u003Cem>Carceral Capitalism\u003C\u002Fem>, (South Pasadena: Semiotext(e), 2018), 297.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-1-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 1 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-2-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Clément Petitjean,  “Prisons and Class Warfare: An Interview with Ruth Wilson Gilmore,” in \u003Cem>Verso Blog\u003C\u002Fem>, August 2, 2018, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.versobooks.com\u002Fblogs\u002F3954-prisons-and-class-warfare-an-interview-with-ruthwilson-Gilmore\">https:\u002F\u002Fwww.versobooks.com\u002Fblogs\u002F3954-prisons-and-class-warfare-an-interview-with-ruthwilson-Gilmore\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-2-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 2 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-3-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>&nbsp;In Canada, this includes the police-involved murders of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Chantel Moore and most recently Kuya Chester in “Vancouver” on January 5, 2021.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-3-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 3 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-4-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Abolition in this sense is a call to end all carceral systems, including police and prisons, as they function as infrastructures of colonialism and white supremacy premised on the continued harm and deaths of Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-4-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 4 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-5-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Outbreaks remain active and there are over 5,000 COVID-19 cases in jails and prisons across Canada since the start of the pandemic. See: Alyshah Hasham and Akrit Michael, “Maplehurst’s 130 active COVID cases make it Ontario’s worst jail outbreak of the pandemic,” \u003Cem>Toronto Star\u003C\u002Fem>, January 25, 2021, \u003Ca rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.thestar.com\u002Fnews\u002Fgta\u002F2021\u002F01\u002F25\u002Fmaplehursts-130-active-covid-cases-make-it-ontarios-worst-jail-outbreak-of-the-pandemic.html\" target=\"_blank\">https:\u002F\u002Fwww.thestar.com\u002Fnews\u002Fgta\u002F2021\u002F01\u002F25\u002Fmaplehursts-130-active-covid-cases-make-it-ontarios-worst-jail-outbreak-of-the-pandemic.html\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-5-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 5 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-6-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>&#8216;Relatively&#8217; as in coming out of the earlier 19th century. See: Rachel Kushner,“Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind,” \u003Cem>The New York Times,\u003C\u002Fem> April 17 2019, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nytimes.com\u002F2019\u002F04\u002F17\u002Fmagazine\u002Fprison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html\">https:\u002F\u002Fwww.nytimes.com\u002F2019\u002F04\u002F17\u002Fmagazine\u002Fprison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-6-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 6 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-7-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Rachel Kushner, “Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind.”\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-7-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 7 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-8-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Clément Petitjean, “Prisons and Class Warfare: An Interview with Ruth Wilson Gilmore.”\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-8-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 8 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-9-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Story was my MFA thesis supervisor and her thinking on prison films was influential in my own development as a filmmaker; my most recent short documentary “The Garden Collective” is about the Prison for Women Memorial Collective, a group of formerly incarcerated women, working to build a memorial on the former grounds of the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-9-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 9 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-10-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Brett Story, “Against a Humanizing Prison Cinema: the Prison in 12 Landscapes and the Politics of Abolition Imagery,” in \u003Cem>Routledge International Handbook of Visual Criminology\u003C\u002Fem>. Routledge, eds. Michelle Brown and Eamonn Carrabine, (New York: Routledge, Taylor &amp; Francis Group, 2017): 455.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-10-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 10 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-11-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>These are often referred to as “reformist reforms” as opposed to “non-reformist reforms” aka abolition. See: Critical Resistance, “Reformist reforms vs. abolitionist steps in policing,” 2020: \u003Ca rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\u002F\u002Fcriticalresistance.org\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2020\u002F08\u002FCR_NoCops_reform_vs_abolition_REV2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">http:\u002F\u002Fcriticalresistance.org\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2020\u002F08\u002FCR_NoCops_reform_vs_abolition_REV2020.pdf\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-11-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 11 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-12-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Pooja Rangan and Brett Story, “Four propositions on True Crime and Abolition,” \u003Cem>World Records, \u003C\u002Fem>no.5 (2020): \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fvols.worldrecordsjournal.org\u002F99\u002F02\">https:\u002F\u002Fvols.worldrecordsjournal.org\u002F99\u002F02\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-12-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 12 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-13-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Ibid.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-13-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 13 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-14-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Jackie Wang, \u003Cem>Carceral Capitalism\u003C\u002Fem>, 264.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-14-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 14 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-15-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Brett Story, “Against a Humanizing Prison Cinema,” 456.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-15-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 15 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-16-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Ruth Wilson Gilmore, \u003Cem>Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California \u003C\u002Fem>(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 17.\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-16-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 16 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-17-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>&nbsp;Roger Ebert, “Video: Roger Ebert on Empathy,” \u003Cem>Rogerebert.com, \u003C\u002Fem>April 4, 2018, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.rogerebert.com\u002Fempathy\u002Fvideo-roger-ebert-on-empathy\">https:\u002F\u002Fwww.rogerebert.com\u002Fempathy\u002Fvideo-roger-ebert-on-empathy\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-17-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 17 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-18-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Robin D.G. Kelley, Jack Amariglio and Lucas Wilson, “Solidarity is not a Market Exchange: An RM Interview with Robin D.G. Kelley part 1,” \u003Cem>Rethinking Marxism\u003C\u002Fem>, 30:4, 568–598, accessed through\u003Cbr>\u003Ca rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fblack-ink.info\u002F2020\u002F01\u002F16\u002Fsolidarity-is-not-a-market-exchange-an-interview-with-robin-d-g-kelley\u002F\" target=\"_blank\">https:\u002F\u002Fblack-ink.info\u002F2020\u002F01\u002F16\u002Fsolidarity-is-not-a-market-exchange-an-interview-with-robin-d-g-kelley\u002F\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-18-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 18 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-19-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>\u003Cem>The Infiltrators\u003C\u002Fem> was discussed as an abolitionist film in Brett Story and Pooja Rangan’s talk,\u003Cem> “\u003C\u002Fem>True Crime &amp; The Case for Abolition Documentary.”\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-19-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 19 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-20-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Robin D.G. Kelley, Jack Amariglio and Lucas Wilson, “Solidarity is not a Market Exchange.”\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-20-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 20 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-21-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan>Fred Moten and Stefano Harney, “Wildcat the Totality – Fred Moten And Stefano Harney Revisit \u003Cem>The Undercommons\u003C\u002Fem> In A Time Of Pandemic And Rebellion (Part 1),” July 4, 2020, \u003Cem>Millennials are Killing Capitalism, \u003C\u002Fem>podcast, mp3 audio, 01:01:54,&nbsp; \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmillennialsarekillingcapitalism.libsyn.com\u002Fwildcat-the-totality-fred-moten-and-stefano-harney-revisit-the-undercommons-in-a-time-of-pandemic-and-rebellion-part-1\">https:\u002F\u002Fmillennialsarekillingcapitalism.libsyn.com\u002Fwildcat-the-totality-fred-moten-and-stefano-harney-revisit-the-undercommons-in-a-time-of-pandemic-and-rebellion-part-1\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-21-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 21 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003Cli class=\"easy-footnote-single\">\u003Cspan id=\"easy-footnote-bottom-22-622\" class=\"easy-footnote-margin-adjust\">\u003C\u002Fspan> She points to Monet’s Water Lilies as a point of inspiration for her work. See: Emily Breidenbach, “Envisioning an Abolitionist Future,” \u003Cem>Sixty Inches from the Center, \u003C\u002Fem>February 20, 2018. \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fsixtyinchesfromcenter.org\u002Fenvisioning-an-abolitionist-future\u002F\">https:\u002F\u002Fsixtyinchesfromcenter.org\u002Fenvisioning-an-abolitionist-future\u002F\u003C\u002Fa>\u003Ca class=\"easy-footnote-to-top\" href=\"#easy-footnote-22-622\" aria-label=\"Back to note 22 in the text\">\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\u003C\u002Fol>","\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Images:\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Garrett Bradley, \u003Cem>Time\u003C\u002Fem> (2020; Amazon Studios), digital. \u003C\u002Fspan>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Brett Story, \u003Cem>The Prison in Twelve Landscapes\u003C\u002Fem> (2016; Oh Ratface Films), digital.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n","",null,[36],{"id":28,"slug":30,"name":29,"firstName":37,"lastName":38,"bioHtml":39},"Sara","Wylie","\n\u003Cp class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u003Cstrong>Sara Wylie \u003C\u002Fstrong>is a non-fiction filmmaker, producer and researcher from the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (aka Vancouver). She has directed short films (\u003Cem>A Radiant Sphere\u003C\u002Fem>, 2019), and produced award-winning documentaries (\u003Cem>Handsome &amp; Majestic\u003C\u002Fem>, 2016) and a feature film (\u003Cem>Wizard Mode\u003C\u002Fem>, 2016). Sara graduated with distinction from Ryerson University&#8217;s Documentary Media MFA Program in 2019, and her latest documentary \u003Cem>The Garden Collective\u003C\u002Fem> (2020), about the Prison For Women Memorial Collective in Kingston, Ontario, is currently playing&nbsp;in film festivals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n",{"title":41,"robots":42,"og_locale":48,"og_type":49,"og_title":41,"og_description":50,"og_url":51,"og_site_name":52,"article_publisher":53,"article_modified_time":54,"og_image":55,"twitter_card":58,"twitter_site":59,"twitter_misc":60,"schema":62},"Abolitionist Futures: Towards an anti-carceral aesthetics in documentary film - ReIssue",{"index":43,"follow":44,"max-snippet":45,"max-image-preview":46,"max-video-preview":47},"noindex","follow","max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview:-1","en_US","article","Sara Wylie critiques the carceral image, and outlines a set of provisional aesthetic strategies practiced by filmmakers working towards a future free of prisons.","https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002Farticles\u002Fabolitionist-futures-towards-an-anti-carceral-aesthetics-in-documentary-film\u002F","ReIssue","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.facebook.com\u002Freissue.pub\u002F","2021-11-24T20:47:41+00:00",[56],{"width":22,"height":23,"url":20,"type":57},"image\u002Fjpeg","summary_large_image","@reissuepub",{"Est. reading time":61},"15 minutes",{"@context":63,"@graph":64},"https:\u002F\u002Fschema.org",[65,80,82,96,111],{"@type":66,"@id":51,"url":51,"name":41,"isPartOf":67,"primaryImageOfPage":69,"image":71,"thumbnailUrl":20,"datePublished":72,"dateModified":54,"breadcrumb":73,"inLanguage":75,"potentialAction":76},"WebPage",{"@id":68},"https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002F#website",{"@id":70},"https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002Farticles\u002Fabolitionist-futures-towards-an-anti-carceral-aesthetics-in-documentary-film\u002F#primaryimage",{"@id":70},"2021-03-01T20:37:36+00:00",{"@id":74},"https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002Farticles\u002Fabolitionist-futures-towards-an-anti-carceral-aesthetics-in-documentary-film\u002F#breadcrumb","en-US",[77],{"@type":78,"target":79},"ReadAction",[51],{"@type":81,"inLanguage":75,"@id":70,"url":20,"contentUrl":20,"width":22,"height":23,"caption":24},"ImageObject",{"@type":83,"@id":74,"itemListElement":84},"BreadcrumbList",[85,90,94],{"@type":86,"position":87,"name":88,"item":89},"ListItem",1,"Home","https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002F",{"@type":86,"position":91,"name":92,"item":93},2,"Articles","https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002Farticles\u002F",{"@type":86,"position":95,"name":6},3,{"@type":97,"@id":68,"url":89,"name":52,"description":98,"publisher":99,"potentialAction":101,"inLanguage":75},"WebSite","critical discourse for experimental art practices",{"@id":100},"https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002F#organization",[102],{"@type":103,"target":104,"query-input":107},"SearchAction",{"@type":105,"urlTemplate":106},"EntryPoint","https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002F?s={search_term_string}",{"@type":108,"valueRequired":109,"valueName":110},"PropertyValueSpecification",true,"search_term_string",{"@type":112,"@id":100,"name":52,"url":89,"logo":113,"image":117,"sameAs":118},"Organization",{"@type":81,"inLanguage":75,"@id":114,"url":115,"contentUrl":115,"width":22,"height":116,"caption":52},"https:\u002F\u002Freissue.pub\u002F#\u002Fschema\u002Flogo\u002Fimage\u002F","https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2022\u002F06\u002Freissue_logo.jpg",1118,{"@id":114},[53,119,120],"https:\u002F\u002Fx.com\u002Freissuepub","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.instagram.com\u002Freissue.pub\u002F",{"id":122,"slug":123,"title":88,"contentHtml":33,"acf":124,"backgroundBlur":127,"seo":128},48,"home",{"background_image":125,"isBlack":18,"header_text":126},"https:\u002F\u002Fcms.reissue.pub\u002Fwp-content\u002Fuploads\u002F2026\u002F11\u002Fdaisy_reissue_2.jpg","ReIssue: 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