INSIDE STORIES: PERSPECTIVES ON INCARCERATION VI
Ages 16-29
Winter 2024, JHU-MICA Film Centre

In this workshop, student fellows will work with instructors to contribute to an ongoing project, gathering personal accounts from the formerly incarcerated and from others who have worked inside prisons.  These accounts will be shared in their entirety on the program website and through the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries archives, contributing to a public record of this important and too often hidden aspect of the American experience.  Fellows will learn to conduct productive, respectful interviews--advance preparation, open-ended questions, active listening; to log content for possible future use in documentary storytelling or other projects; and to identify story arcs and other points of interest for brief excerpts to be featured along with complete accounts.  Highlights from the interviews will be shared at a public exhibition.  This workshop builds on the series Inside Stories. Limited to 15 student fellows.                     

Greg Carpenter has worked in reentry for twenty years.  He is a 2015 Open Society Institute Fellow (OSI) and owner of the 2 AM Bakery, which houses his program Eye Can B-More.  Eye Can B-More offers returning citizens work experience, job training, and a range of support services.  He also co-chairs the Greater Baltimore City Grassroots Network, which is comprised of more than forty service providers and advocacy groups that assist the formerly incarcerated.  

Lukas MacKinney is an aspiring filmmaker and musician. They enjoy all aspects of the movies, but especially scoring films and working as a teaching assistant. They hope to continue sharing cinema as a means of joy, education, and representation.

Stan Saunders is a retired broadcaster for WJZ-TV Baltimore.  He mentors youth in the Baltimore City Public Schools through his nonprofit program, Baltimore Area Sports and Entertainment (B.A.S.E.).  He also creates community-impact documentaries, leveraging his more than thirty years telling Baltimore stories. 

Sabi Baibussinov is a first-year graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and a former journalist from Astana, Kazakhstan. He loves travel, tennis, documentary films, hiking, and cooking.

Alisha Mona'e Coates graduated from Morgan State University with a B.S. in Multi-Platform Media Production.  A BYFA participant since 2016, she started her photography career at Edmondson Westside, and hopes to eventually open an art/photography studio.