What is prison for? Touted as both a means of punishment and correction, the U.S. carceral system rarely succeeds at the latter. According to the Department of Justice, more than 650,000 people are released from prison annually, with two-thirds being arrested again within three years. Rehabilitation is the purported justification for locking away more of our residents than most other nations, but clearly, the punitive system seldom accomplishes this goal.
A new film by writer Marvin Wade and animator Evan Bode juxtaposes the counterproductive forces of the carceral system with the programs, resources, and true determination that make change possible. Presented by The New York Times‘ Opinion section, “Prison and Time” details Wade’s experience while incarcerated and how, despite the system’s rules and the whims of correctional officers, he was able to obtain his GED, learn to facilitate conflict resolution, and discover his love for writing. Time, for Wade, was the critical support he needed to gain perspective, while the system he found himself ensnared by focused on dehumanization and retribution.
For his part, Bode animated a dark, dizzying visualization that evokes the bleak and claustrophobic conditions of a prison cell and the lives it both conceals and actively thwarts. The scenes rendered in watercolor and marker appear as blips within the larger narrative, an apt material metaphor that moves the viewer throughout the film like a ticking clock. A making-of video highlights this painstaking process.
Bode and Wade met through Project Mend, a journal featuring the work of creatives impacted by the carceral system published through Syracuse University. “Mend is a very small, tight-knit group doing extraordinary things with a lot of love,” Bode says. “Last year, [the project’s founder] Patrick W. Barry presented me with some texts published in Mend for me to consider animating, one of which was Marvin Wade’s brilliant essay, ‘Time and Prison: Are They Mutually Exclusive?‘”
The two teamed up, with Wade narrating and Bode animating. Together, they create a captivating portal into Wade’s life at a particularly vulnerable and transformative time. “I believe the purpose of an artist is to move the crowd,” he writes about the film. “And my hope is that everyone watching our film will be moved in some way.”
Project Mend has tapped Bode for further collaborations, including an animated film paired with the poem “Man Skin Boy Mask” by José Angel Perez. Keep an eye out for its release on Vimeo.
