WINN

Directed by Erica Tanamachi & Joseph East

This powerful, short documentary exposes the horrifying experience that incarcerated pregnant women endure and documents Pamela Winn's mission to end shackling and ultimately prison birth.

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SYNOPSIS

After miscarrying her baby in prison due to shackling, Pamela Winn becomes an activist, leading thousands to support – and pass – the 2019 Georgia Dignity Act, which outlawed shackling of pregnant and postpartum inmates. WINN follows Pamela’s journey from prison to the halls of the state Capitol; from incarcerated person to outspoken law-changer; from powerless to empowered. Told using a blend of verité style filmmaking, animation, and compelling first-person interview footage, this powerful, short film exposes the horrifying experience that incarcerated pregnant women endure and documents Pamela's mission to end shackling and ultimately prison birth.

PRESS

Gripping, educational, surprising, 17-minute documentary that chronicles the valiant efforts of Georgia activist and RestoreHER founder Pamela Winn.

Sun This Week

Highly Recommended

Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO)

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

Reel South Short Award and George Short Special Jury Mention, Atlanta Film Festival

Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
BAMcinemaFest Shorts Program
Justice on Trial Film Festival
Washington West Film Festival
Sidewalk Film Festival

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Erica Tanamachi

Erica (Filanc) Tanamachi is an award-winning filmmaker and MFA Cinema graduate of San Francisco State University (2007). Erica was Creative Producer for the feature documentary "Motherload," which won “Best Documentary” from the Hollywood North Film Awards. She also won “Best Documentary” from The Sonoma Film Festival, Silverlake Film Festival and The Documentary Foundation for her short documentary "Living Poets". Erica is passionate about creating powerful underrepresented stories that show the truth of the human experience.

Joseph East

Joseph East is a filmmaker based in Atlanta, GA. Joseph directed the feature documentary, "I Will Dance," which aired on PBS and was selected for the National Endowment for the Arts Southern Circuit tour. He was recently Director of Photography on the feature documentary "Refuge," which premiered at DOC NYC in 2021 and is executive produced by Katie Couric. Joseph won a 2021 Southeast Emmy for his work on the PBS series, "Your Fantastic Mind."

Director: Erica Tanamachi

Co-Director: Joseph East

Subject Areas

Criminal Justice Human Rights

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Apart

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Belly of the Beast

Filmed over seven years with extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently and formerly incarcerated people, this Emmy-winning documentary exposes a pattern of illegal sterilizations, modern-day eugenics and reproductive injustice in California prisons.

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Fly So Far

A grave warning of how far state control of women’s bodies can go, FLY SO FAR follows Teodora Vásquez, who was sentenced to thirty years in a Salvadorean prison after she suffered a stillbirth.

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The Grey Area: Feminism Behind Bars

Closed captioned and audio described DVD available on request. Please email [email protected]

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900 Women

“The Louisiana Correctional Institute is located in the swamps of southern Louisiana in the small town of St. Gabriel. Built in 1970 to house an increasing population of female convicts, today it houses the state's most dangerous female prisoners and often exceeds its population capacity of 900. 75% of these are mothers and one fourth of them are serving sentences of fifteen years or more. The prison compound has a surreal quality; there are no searchlight-capped towers or barbed wire fences. Filmmaker Khadivi delivers a striking, sensitive portrait of life in this deceptively peaceful atmosphere, which is filled with stories of life on the streets, abuse, freedom, childbirth and motherhood. Six women - a grandmother, a young high school student, a pregnant woman, a recovering heroin addict, a prison guard, and the only woman on death row - were brave enough to share their frustrations and hopes. Produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Jonathan Stack ("The Farm").” - Human Rights Watch Film Festival Catalogue

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Blind Spot: Murder by Women

Because murder by women is still relatively rare--only one out of eight murders in the United States is committed by a woman--women's own stories provide unique insights into the circumstances leading to these violent acts. In this absorbing documentary, intimate one-on-one interviews with six women murderers are combined with re-enactments of their background experience and visual re-creations of their interior lives. Sharing and reflecting on their memories, fantasies, dreams, and anger, the six women candidly describe their actions as perpetrators in detail and address the issue of having taken a life. Interspersed between their separate stories are their individual reflections on coping strategies, and life and relationships in prison. From the Academy and Emmy-award winning filmmakers responsible for DIALOGUES WITH MADWOMEN, BLIND SPOT is a provocative and riveting encounter with throw-away children, out-of-control adults, and the emotional, psychological and spiritual consequences of murder.

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Troop 1500

Their mothers may be convicted thieves, murderers and drug dealers, but the girls of Troop 1500 want to be doctors, social workers and marine biologists. With meetings once a month at Hilltop Prison in Gatesville, Texas, this innovative Girl Scout program brings daughters together with their inmate mothers, offering them a chance to rebuild their broken relationships. Intimately involved with the troop for several years, the directors took their cameras far beyond meetings to explore the painful context of broken families. Powerful insight comes from interviews shot by the girls themselves, which reveal their conflicted feelings of anger and joy, abandonment and intimacy—as well as the deep influence their mothers still have on them. An estimated 1.5 million children have incarcerated parents and 90 percent of female inmates are single parents. Their daughters are six times more likely to land in the juvenile justice system. TROOP 1500 poignantly reveals how an inspired yet controversial effort by the more than 90-year old Girl Scouts organization is working to help these at-risk young girls deal with their unique circumstances and break the cycle of crime within families.

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OUR CATALOG

WINN

SYNOPSIS

PRESS

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Subject Areas

RELATED LINKS

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A Woman on the Outside

Apart

Belly of the Beast

Fly So Far

The Grey Area: Feminism Behind Bars

900 Women

Blind Spot: Murder by Women

Troop 1500