Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed tonight, Tuesday, April 26: IN AN IDEAL WORLD
Noel Schwerin’s look at racial divisions in prison debuted at the Washington DC Independent Film Festival last year. Additional screenings included San Luis Obispo, Ojai, Harlem, Hoboken, Breckenridge, San Francisco Black, and Chicago’s Social Change fests.
Filmed over seven years, Schwerin’s project looks at institutionalized racial segregation through the experiences of three men in northern California’s Soledad Prison: Warden Ben Curry and two prisoners – Sam Lewis, who is black, and John Piccirillo, who is white. While segregation has been encouraged as a means to maintain order in an often dangerous environment, separating African American, Latino, and white prisoners into self-policing subgroups with their own codes of conduct, it has also encouraged the spread of white supremacist ideology and racially motivated violence and tension. Facing federal pressure to reform prison segregation policies, Warden Curry begins an anti-violence program that affords inmates like Lewis and Piccirillo the opportunity to cross racial lines and share their experiences in the prison system, and hopes for its change. While presenting a sobering message on the systemic challenges facing America’s correctional institutions, Schwerin’s film ultimately offers a redemptive perspective.
