America ReFramed

Transcending the grim realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, Adamu Chan's WHAT THESE WALLS WON'T HOLD paints a portrait of resilience and hope blossoming within San Quentin State Prison. Chan, formerly incarcerated himself, offers an insider's view delving into his own journey towards freedom, while amplifying the voices of his community and their loved ones on both sides of the prison walls.

In HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS, a family reeling from the unjust incarceration of an ailing mentally ill loved one, calls on their faith and the strength of community to right a systemic wrong. Music, love and creativity are used to permeate the isolation of a solitary confinement cell, and a public performance on prison grounds is used to challenge the state to do better.

As a teen, Alaudin Ullah was swept up by the energy of hip-hop and rebelled against his Bangladeshi roots. Now a playwright contending with post-9/11 Hollywood's Islamophobia, he sets out to tell his parents' stories. IN SEARCH OF BENGALI HARLEM tracks his quest from mid-20th-century Harlem to Bangladesh, unveiling intertwined histories of South Asian Muslims, African Americans, and Puerto Ricans.

In California's Central Valley, Mexican-American youth living in farmworker family housing are missing at least three months of school each year due to an annual, state-mandated displacement. COMO VIVIMOS (HOW WE LIVE) spends a year following the rhythms, resilience, and aspirations of such students and their families.

California's migrant family housing centers are one of few affordable housing options available to farmworking families. But these housing centers are only available for residence during the several months of the growing season. Come winter, families are required to completely vacate their homes and move at least 50 miles away for at least three months. Unable to afford market rates, many families pull their children from school and move out of state or to Mexico for the off-season, interrupting children's schooling until families can return to live in the centers in the spring.

Many of the residents in these centers are California-born, many the grandchildren of Bracero farmworkers. Yet, despite decades of contributions to California's culture and economy, these annual cycles of moving deprive families of a complete education and the economic mobility promised by it.