Doors at 7:30pm

Join us for a screening of the 2016 Oscar Nominated Documentary Short Last Day of Freedom, followed by a conversation with the filmmakers Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman, and Susan Burton, Director of A New Way of Life Reentry Project. Phoneme Media’s graphic novel Panthers In The Hole will also be available for purchase courtesy of Skylight Books.

About the Film: When Bill Babbitt realizes his brother Manny has committed a crime, he agonizes over his decision – should he call the police? Last Day of Freedom, a richly animated personal narrative, tells the story of Bill’s decision to stand by his brother in the face of war, crime and capital punishment. The film is a portrait of a man at the nexus of the most pressing social issues of our day – veterans’ care, mental health access and criminal justice. Runtime 32 mins.

All ticket purchases benefit A New Way of Life Reentry Project. The film will be screened outdoors in Clockshop’s courtyard. Drinks available for purchase.

Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman are artists and filmmakers who tell stories that bring to life larger issues of criminal justice and civic responsibility. They created all key animations on the 32 thousand drawings in their Oscar Nominated Short Last Day of Freedom. Their collaborative film and media projects have been exhibited and screened widely including the international film festivals Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Art in General (NYC), The Israeli Center for Digital Art, Tokyo Zokei Museum. Recent grants and awards include a Cal Humanities Documentary Grant, MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Center for Cultural Innovation Award, Pacific Pioneer Fund, Creative Work Fund Grant, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Award & Residency, NEA project award and BAVC Media Maker Fellowship. Their current film project Last Day of Freedom won the Jury Award for Best Short at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival this year. The film also won the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award at Full Frame, then received the Justice for All Award at the (In) Justice Film Festival and most recently the audience award at SF Doc Fest.

Susan Burton and her story of perseverance in overcoming overwhelming odds is an inspiration to women across the United States, particularly formerly incarcerated women and women in recovery from addiction to alcohol and drugs. After cycling in an out of the criminal justice system for nearly fifteen years, Susan gained freedom and sobriety and founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project in 1998. Susan was recently nominated as a CNN Top 10 Hero in the category of “community crusader.” She was also awarded the Citizen Activist Award from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2010. She has been a Soros Justice Fellow, a Women’s Policy Institute Fellow, and a former Community Fellow under the Violence Prevention Initiative of The California Wellness Foundation. Susan is a longtime Board Member of the Los Angeles Sober Living Network that provides housing for thousands of people in in Los Angeles who would otherwise be homeless. In 2007 Susan was appointed to Governor Schwarzenegger‘s Little Hoover Sentencing Reform Commission and Gender Responsive Strategies Commission. Susan completed a Chemical Dependency Certificate course at Southwest College in Winter 2002, as well as certificate programs in Non-Violent Organizing and Three Principles of Human Development at UCLA.

Film Still: Last Day of Freedom (2015)