LPB & Indie Lens Pop-Up Present Documentary Shorts

The Bridge Builders Collective offers an intimate look at trailblazing leaders across the United States - including New Orleans - as they work to build better futures for their communities. One of the featured films, “Big Arms,” is told through the eyes of New Orleans Community Health Care Worker, Haki Sekou, who, equipped with his own experiences from time served, empowers individuals facing an unjust system of carceral healthcare.

The collective of documentary shorts was intentionally created in collaboration with the film’s participants, whose resilience in the face of daunting challenges serve as inspiration for action to build bridges of change within communities. This innovative repositioning allows the changemakers to be equal authors of their stories, alongside the filmmakers. To provide audiences an inside look into the reform landscape, the series centers on organization leaders of different ages, backgrounds, and geographies as they seek to spark systemic change.

Additional shorts in the Bridge Builders Collective include:

• “Boundless” - Jennifer Carreon, director of the Criminal Justice Project with Texas Appleseed, works to reshape the Texas criminal legal system. Rooted in a bottom-up approach to social change, she is a bridge between system-impacted communities of color and legislators.
• “Beneath The Surface” - Trina Reynolds Tyler leads Beneath the Surface, an investigation into gender-based violence buried in police complaints in Chicago.
• “How We Heal Each Other” - As Co-Director of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) in the California Bay Area, Ny Nourn provides direct support to incarcerated Asian American and Pacific Islanders, working to dismantle the prison-to-deportation pipeline and bring community members home.
• “The Power Of Us” - Community Aid Network, a Minneapolis-based mutual aid collective, addresses immediate needs of underserved communities suffering from the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism; they build bonds between neighbors, organize volunteers, and redistribute resources.

Click the video player on this page to hear the conversation, Second Chances: Building Bridges for Women After Incarceration, that LPB presented following the screening. You will hear from individuals who have established programs in Louisiana that assist previously incarcerated women so they may regain confidence, re-enter the work force, and become positive influences within their communities, as well as one of the Bridge Builders Collective producers.

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Our Panelists

The discussion will be hosted and moderated by Kara St. Cyr, Co-Anchor of LPB’s weekly news program
Louisiana: The State We’re In.

Lauren Grace Cargo - Based in New Orleans, Cargo is an independent producer and casting director whose practice spans the worlds of narrative and documentary filmmaking with a thematic focus on work set in the American Gulf South. A graduate of Tulane University with a BA in Film Theory and Environmental Studies, Cargo’s work focuses on the uncelebrated uniquenesses of the human spirit. She believes in casting real people with their own complex voice and story who connect with a project based on shared experience, in order to widen representation and advocate for those often invisible in the media. Projects she has contributed to have played at Sundance, New Orleans Film Festival, the Super Bowl, the Whitney Biennial, and PBS. Cargo is a producer of the Bridge Builders Collective.

Ivy Mathis - Originally from Monroe Louisiana, and currently residing in Baton Rouge, Mathis was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 17. After serving 26 years at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, she was released December 11, 2018. Through the challenges she faced acclimating, Mathis developed a six-week reentry program called Life Support, to help others facing similar situations. The course offers educational tools ranging from acclimating to freedom, dealing with emotions and family relationships, and other realities of life after incarceration, and in order to show that success is possible. As the founder of the non-profit, Successful Imperfections, her goal is to build formerly incarcerated women up to understand their value and that past mistakes don't have to define their future.

Anjali Niyogi is the founder and director of the FIT Clinic Program. Working at a community hospital contracted by the Department of Corrections (DOC), Dr. Anjali has always provided medical care for incarcerated individuals. However, it was not until one day when a medical student asked her "what happens when people get out", that she began to understand the serious neglect to health services for formerly incarcerated persons. This led her to start the Formerly Incarcerated Transitions (FIT) Clinic to minimize health related barriers during reentry.