2008
Prison Reform
Film Festival
August
15, 16, 17
Rice Media Center
Rice University
Houston
August 15, 5:00 p.m. - Life inside the the Texas prison gulag is brought vividly to life as Ray Hill recounts his years
behind bars and helms The Prison Show in which callers to a Houston rado station address loved ones on the inside. Ex-convict
Hill debuted the program in 1980. He founded the Prison Reform Film Festival in 2008. In between, he was dubbed "Citizen
Provocateur" by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1987 case he won against the City of Houston.
The Marilyn Gambrell Story
August 15, 7:30 p.m.
Millions of Americans are incarcerated
each year. What happens to the children they leave behind? A former parole officer wages
an uphill battle to mentor high school students saddled with the handicap of having one or both parents in prison. She struggles
to help kids overcome the cycle of incarceration, a battle that tests how
TULIA, TEXAS
August 16, 2:00 p.m.
Freelance undercover narcotics officer Thomas Coleman, working with state and local officials, executed a massive sting operation
in 1999 in the small farming town of Tulia in the Texas panhandle. Of the 46 people charged with selling drugs, 39 were black.
Almost immediately, accusations of racism and police misconduct were lodged. The documentary details the criticisms that surfaced
following guilty verdicts, stiff sentences, and stunning reversals.
August 16, 7:30 p.m.
Riveting, first-person, accounts of six people connected by the unnerving fact that each was wrongfully convicted of murder then exonerated
and freed after years in prison, where many were subjected to brutality and degredation. Based n a play of the same name,
it features an all-star cast including Danny Glover, Aidan Quinn, and Susan Sarandon.
much she is willing to sacrafice to maintain the program she helped create. Based on a true story, the film stars Jami Gertz,
Ernie Hudson, Eugene Clark and Sicily Sewell.
Prison Body-Freedom Soul: The Robert Coney Saga
August 16, 5:00 p.m.
U.S. veteran Robert Coney served two tours of duty in Asia and escaped from a Korean P.O.W. camp. He also pulled off a half dozen
jailbreaks. Wrongly imprisoned for 44 years, he was reunited with Shirley, his love of 43 years, after being freed by a judge
who researched, and confirmed, his protestations of innocence. But the nightmare wasn't over. Even though Coney had cleared
his name, The state wanted a crack at him.
Photo (c) Dallas Morning News
August 17, 2:00 p.m.
Convict Fred Cruz fights heroically to win new rights for prisoners in Texas. The film details the horrendous conditions that
existed in Texas prisons in the 1960's and highlights the war of wills between Cruz and prison administrators as he challenged, and
ultimately changed, the system. Cruz overcame a limited education studying law books that taught him how to stand up for himself
and other prisoners, but he struggled with personal demons that would follow him the rest of his days.
August 17, 5:00 p.m.
The Ultimate Hunt: TDCJ's Jerry Hodge on Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey focuses her show and its' considerable clout on an astonishing incident in which Texas Board of Criminal Justice member
Jerry Hodge invited friends to watch a training excercise involving convicts forced to be "dog bait" for prison chase dogs.
Hodge gave his VIP spectator-guests jackets stitched with "Ultimate Hunt '89". Two prisoners were seriously injured in the excercise.
Hodge was later promoted to chairman of the prison board and had a unit named after him.
August 17, 7:30 p.m.
Convicts offer personal accounts of the harrowing journey in which each renounced membership in blood-in, blood-out prison gangs with
the help of a prison sponsored program designed to reduce gang violence inside prison and help convicts plan a post-release life that
will keep them out of prison by eliminating ties to thier old gangs.
The Exonerated is shown courtesy of monterey media, inc. & Court TV. We are grateful for their cooperation and support!
If you would like to own a copy of the film with all of the extras, please visit monterey media. While you're there, check out
their whole catalog... great stuff!