Objectives

True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality follows 30 years of Equal Justice Initiative's important work on behalf of the poor and incarcerated. The film is the winner of a Peabody Award, The American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications’s 26th annual Vision Award, and has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary.

Picture Motion and Kunhardt Film Foundation created an impact campaign around the film that aimed to create spaces for students, educators, social justice organizations, and community members to have honest conversations about the legacy of slavery and the history of racial injustice in America. The campaign also worked to spread awareness about the transformative work of Bryan Stevenson, the Equal Justice Initiative, and his call for truth and reconciliation.

Goals: 

1. Create safe spaces for students to have difficult conversations about race
2. Change the narrative about systemic racism and institutional oppression
3. Raise awareness for Bryan Stevenson’s contributions in fighting for greater equity in the criminal justice system
4. Increase community commitment to bringing lynching memorials to their town

Strategy and Execution

Students Talk About Race

In order to achieve our four objectives - to create spaces for difficult conversations on race in classrooms, and raise awareness for Bryan Stevenson’s legal work - our strategy focused on working closely with educators. to utilize the film in the classroom. All screening hosts were given a robust toolkit of resources including six multi-media lesson plans, an engagement guide, and a photo archive to effectively prepare students for the film and to facilitate meaningful post-screening discussions. of the film. ’s themes including educational guides, promotional materials, and a special message from Bryan Stevenson. 

Over the course of eight months we did the following:

• 366 screenings
• 85% included post-screening discussions
• 30,000 people reached
• 45% of screenings were shown to K-12 or college-age audiences

Helping to Release Pain

As an addendum to the screenings and conversations taking place in school classrooms, we also facilitated multiple events at five correctional facilities and prison education programs. Hosts shared that these screenings and conversations acted as an avenue for those incarcerated to talk about the racial injustice that led to their situation and, as reported, enabled some release of pain.

A series of screenings took place at San Quentin State Prison, directly reaching 3,000+ incarcerated individuals at the prison, including death row inmates. Rabbi Paul Shleffar showed the film in the prison chapel for those who could attend in person, and shortly after it was broadcast on the CCTV feed 35+ times for those who have restricted movement, including people on death row. We then connected Rabbi Shleffar with the nearby California Film Institute to be a panelist for their upcoming True Justice screening, providing a richer screening experience for the 350 community members who attended, and fostering a new local relationship between San Quentin State Prison and the California Film Institute.

Woodside Learning Center serves incarcerated youth from the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center and screened the film as part of a film class. One 14-year-old student had a very profound reaction to it. At first, he was upset by some of the imagery, explaining that it echoed traumatic aspects of his lived experience, but with the help of a trusted teacher, he began to consider the utility of the message. Ultimately, this student helped facilitate a screening for a new group of students the next day and expressed his intention to share the film with his peers upon his release. 

Claiming Responsibility

As seen in the film, one incredibly meaningful way for cities to accept responsibility for their participation in historic racism is to claim their memorial from the Lynching Museum and bring it to their town. Through the screening tour, we worked with five organizations that devoted themselves to bringing lynching memorial markers to their communities. 

Results

Impact By The Numbers:

• 366 total screenings
• 30,000 audience members reached
• 45% of audiences were K-12 or college-aged
• When surveyed, 99% of students found that the film and surrounding conversation expanded their understanding of racial injustice in America
• San Quentin State Prison screened the film for 3,000+ incarcerated people
• 5 organizations committed to building lynching memorials
• 150+ teachers downloaded education materials from Kunhardt Film Foundation

Impact By The Stories: 

• Ossining High School began offering a new course on criminal justice, with True Justice as a centerpiece of the syllabus
• Received hundreds of students' responses to the film; one student wrote that she wanted to become a lawyer after seeing the film
• “It was profound. We had people who were in tears. I show films on a regular basis, people said it was the best one that I'd shown. I talked to a person down in the [CCTV] media lab, he was getting notes from people asking them to keep it on, [asking] if they could leave it on for longer. It touched a lot of people. I heard them talking to each other about it and some of the insights they got from it. I think they felt seen. We’re still getting requests about it.” —Chaplain, San Quentin State Prison
• “Students expressed surprise and indignation that they had never learned this history. They were overwhelmed by the injustices in the system, and came away with a deeper understanding of institutional racism and the legacy of oppression.” —Teacher, Animas High School

Media