Executive Summary

The documentary Apart, directed by Jennifer Redfearn and produced by Tim Metzger, follows mothers in Ohio working to rebuild their lives and reconnect with their families after being incarcerated and separated from their children for years. Independent Lens, the award-winning PBS anthology documentary film series, and Represent Justice, a nonprofit organization using the power of media to change the justice system, partnered with the filmmakers and film participants on multifaceted initiatives to reach and engage audiences.

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About The Film

Each year, across the U.S., long term incarceration will sepa- rate over 130,000 children from their mothers—and Ohio has one of the nation’s largest populations of women in prison (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2021).

About The Team

  • Jennifer Redfearn

    DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, SOUND

    Jennifer Redfearn is an Academy Award-nominated director whose credits include Sun Come Up (HBO) and Tocando La Luz (PBS). She also serves as the director of the documentary program at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

  • Tim Metzger

    CINEMATOGRAPHER, PRODUCER

    Tim Metzger is an Academy Award-nominated producer and Emmy-nominated cinematographer with over 15 years of experience filming documentaries, including Sun Come Up (HBO), Tocando La Luz (PBS), and The Story of God With Morgan Freeman (National Geographic).

  • Rabab Haj Yahya

    EDITOR

    Rabab Haj Yahya is an award-winning editor of feature documentaries including The Feeling of Being Watched (Tribeca 2018), Speed Sisters (Hot Docs 2015), and the Emmy-nominated web series The Secret Life of Muslims (Peabody finalist, Vox and USA Today, 2016).

  • Francisco Bello

    EDITOR

    Francisco Bello, ACE, is an Oscar and three-time Emmy- nominated editor, producer, and cinematographer whose credits include Salim Baba, War Don Don, Most Beautiful Island, and Desert One.

How Did Apart Reach and Engage Audiences?

The Apart film team, Independent Lens, and Represent Justice co-created a distribution and impact strategy to maximize strengths, clarify roles, and plan a collaborative evaluation.

Brought together by a shared connection to Apart, the film team, Independent Lens, and Represent Justice met early on to create a theory of change. Independent Lens and Represent Justice both brought to the planning process commitments to working at the intersection of films and ending mass incarceration, and Apart marked their first opportunity to work together on a film.

The Power of Public Media

Independent Lens used the power of public media to bring new voices into discussions of injustices in the criminal legal system and challenge the stigma of incarceration.

The film premiered on local public media stations across the country on February 21, 2022, and streamed for free for 30 days on the PBS Video app. Independent Lens promoted the film with its 460,000+ social media followers, launched a strategic media campaign, and hosted a virtual screening and panel discussion to build a broad Apart audience. Social media posts garnered nearly 20,000 reactions, comments, and shares, and more than 200 media outlets featured the film. For the virtual screening, Independent Lens brought together 235 viewers from across the country who shared their real-time reactions to the film with each other via the viewing platform’s chat function.

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Independent Lens Screenings & Community Discussions

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Microgrants to Screening Partners

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Viewers Across the Country Watched Apart on Independent Lens Platforms

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2020

National PBS Premiere

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Free Streaming

How Did Apart Impact Audiences

We asked Apart viewers to share what they learned from the film and what actions they planned to take after watching via the Independent Lens interactive feedback platform, DocSCALE. We heard from 650 Apart viewers.

Who Engaged On DOCScale?

Gender-responsive reentry solutions for women

Represent Justice worked with reentry organizations, elected officials, and business leaders to generate support for gender-responsive reentry solutions for women.

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3,250 Screening Participants (Estimated)

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Represent Justice Screenings

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Film Participant Appearances

The women from the Apart documentary were superb. They were candid and this film showed how reentry works, and how it just takes a few to care and invest in our incarcerated adults!
— Screening attendee at the Ohio Wardens and Superintendents Association conference

Apart screened at the 2022 Annual Ohio Wardens and Super- intendents Association Conference, where the women featured in the film asked executive leadership at Ohio’s prisons and jails to resource more reentry programming like the Chopping for Change program to prepare women for their release.

I am facing similar situations, and their journeys give me hope.
— Screening attendee at Mecklenburg Detention Center in North Carolina

Reaching People Behind the Wall

Through broadcast reach and in-person events, Independent Lens and Represent Justice brought Apart inside prisons and jails to provide hope and inspiration to people behind the wall.

Apart Impact Events

How Did Apart Impact The Women Participating In The Film?

If I had two takeaways from this campaign, it would be it gave me purpose and it gave me a voice.
— Amanda Freed, film participant

For Malika Kidd, Tomika Daniel, Lydia Loth, and Amanda Freed — the women featured in Apart — the film’s wide release and impact initiatives provided an opportunity to continue their engagement with the film, encourage others who are navi- gating their own reentry journeys, and share their experience with judges, wardens, corporate leaders, and elected officials.

Screening events also sparked meaningful connections for the women featured in Apart. During the campaign, Malika began speaking in men’s correctional facilities across Ohio and gained knowledge that will help her service organization, Chopping for Change, expand to support a program in a men’s prison.

Looking Ahead

Apart highlights the rising incarceration rates of women, the impact incarcerating mothers has on their families, and the need for gender-responsive reentry solutions. The audience response to Apart showcases the power of film, demonstrating the capacity to raise awareness and help shift the narrative around women and incarceration, from one of punishment to one of rebuilding and growth. There is an opportunity for more storytelling that centers women who are currently and formerly incarcerated, and that also makes it possible for the people most impacted by incarceration to author their own stories.