2023 Culture & Narrative Fellows Our Fellows

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Adamu Chan is a filmmaker, writer, and community organizer from the Bay Area who was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison during one of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the country. He produced numerous short films while incarcerated, using his vantage point and experience as an incarcerated person as a lens to focus the viewer’s gaze on issues related to social justice. In 2021, he was a recipient of the Docs in Action Film Fund through Working Films to produce and direct his film What These Walls Won’t Hold. Adamu draws inspiration and energy from the voices of those directly impacted, and seeks to empower them to reshape the narratives that have been created about them through film.

Mediums: Film, Nonfiction Writing, Visual Art, Television

Location: Berkeley, CA

Contact

@adamuismyfriend

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The “What These Walls Won’t Hold” film impact campaign is dedicated to transforming the representation of incarcerated people in mainstream media and public consciousness. The campaign seeks to leverage the film as a resource for organizers and activists in the prison abolition movement to consider new strategies and methodologies that can open up new avenues toward liberation. Through the work of this project, in conjunction with partnerships with advocacy organizations, we expect to see tangible changes in the coverage and representation of system-impacted people and the passage of decarceration policies, furthering a vision of transforming racial justice and the criminal legal system. This film was made with the intention of not only centering communities impacted by incarceration within the film, but also centering that community as an audience.

I see “narrative reparations” as a form of collective healing for impacted communities, where they are able to see themselves reflected in ways that feel authentic and affirming of their humanity and experience. What this means is that a huge part of the impact campaign is about making the film accessible as widely as possible, and specifically thinking about impacted-communities – including those still residing inside of prisons and jails. I plan to develop community-centered screenings that pair the film with intimate discussions and sharing advocacy resources for people impacted by incarceration. Beyond that, the film and impact campaign will create a model for how to bridge political organizing, direct advocacy, and art and media, and how those efforts can be led by people with lived experience and deep relationships with community.