Contained in the San Quentin Movie Pageant

[ad_1] California's oldest jail is gearing as much as host a completely new forged of characters, together with some Hollywood stars.

San Quentin Rehabilitation Middle, the place a $239 million overhaul is underway, will open its imposing doorways on October 23-24 for a whole bunch of company for its second annual showcase of at the moment and previously incarcerated filmmakers. Actors Jesse Williams and Clarence Maclin, together with different artists and leisure influencers, are slated to serve on an trade jury to evaluate brief movies alongside a panel of inmates, who will assess feature-length submissions.

The San Quentin Movie Pageant, the primary of its form held inside a jail, will spotlight 35 official picks, together with narrative and documentary shorts like Chasing Redemption, Coming Residence and Inmates With Expertise. Organizers advised Newsweek they anticipate one other riveting exhibition of budding artists decided to obliterate limitations.

<img id="10898420" alt="" caption="" src="San Quentin Film Festival producer Brian Asey Gonsoulin (right) alongside comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who attended last year's festival with his wife Jessica Seinfeld, executive producer of Daughters, a documentary about a father-daughter dance in prison. (Courtesy: Phil Bray for SQFF 24.)" credit="" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="3000" height="2000" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Copy-of-32-image.jpg?w=640&quality=75&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Copy-of-32-image.jpg?w=750&quality=75&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Copy-of-32-image.jpg?w=1000&quality=75&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Copy-of-32-image.jpg?w=1200&quality=75&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Copy-of-32-image.jpg?w=1360&quality=75&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Copy-of-32-image.jpg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Copy-of-32-image.jpg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1"/> "What I am most enthusiastic about is the work that the boys inside are doing," SQFF co-producer Brian Asey Gonsoulin mentioned. "I used to be type of blown away final yr by what they have been doing."

Gonsoulin, 58, served 13 years on the infamous jail previous to his launch in early 2024. Whereas behind bars, he had been a mainstay on the San Quentin Media Middle, the place he co-produced an award-winning documentary brief, Pleasant Indicators, written and directed by Rahsaan Thomas, who was additionally free of San Quentin final yr and launched the movie pageant with playwright and longtime volunteer Cori Thomas.

"Once you're incarcerated and you've got a possibility to actually concentrate on one thing greater than you, it offers you goal," Gonsoulin defined. "For lots of the blokes who're inside, that is giving them goal. A few of them most likely have by no means had a possibility like this, and may not ever get one other alternative like this, proper?"

<img id="10891603" alt="" caption="" src="San Quentin Film Festival graphic designer Salvador Joaquin (left) greets actress Kerry Washington at last year's inaugural event at the prison. (Courtesy: SQFF)" credit="" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="6720" height="4480" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A1363.jpg?w=640&quality=75&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A1363.jpg?w=750&quality=75&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A1363.jpg?w=1000&quality=75&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A1363.jpg?w=1200&quality=75&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A1363.jpg?w=1360&quality=75&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A1363.jpg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A1363.jpg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1"/> Gonsoulin is aware of redemption nicely. He spent a complete of 26 years in jail after being convicted of kidnapping and rape and receiving an 83-year-to-life sentence however now takes delight as a filmmaker witnessing the "subsequent technology" of artists remodel themselves, very like the continued renovation on the facility previously generally known as San Quentin State Jail.

"It'll be highly effective," he mentioned. "What I am actually most enthusiastic about is the boys inside having this chance to have life-changing work be put out into society."

Governor Gavin Newsom introduced in March 2023 that San Quentin, which beforehand housed California's dying row, can be revamped from a maximum-security jail right into a facility designed to foster rehabilitation and training. The brand new advanced, that includes lecture rooms for coding instruction and media manufacturing as a part of a campus-like ambiance, is slated to be unveiled in January.

<img id="10891665" alt="" caption="" src="Academy Award-winning writer/director Cord Jefferson with filmmaker Ryan Pagan at last year's festival, which recognized works in nine categories. (Courtesy: SQFF)" credit="" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="6720" height="4480" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A0860.jpg?w=640&quality=75&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A0860.jpg?w=750&quality=75&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A0860.jpg?w=1000&quality=75&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A0860.jpg?w=1200&quality=75&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A0860.jpg?w=1360&quality=75&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A0860.jpg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1O6A0860.jpg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1"/> State officers are working to include applications and greatest practices at San Quentin from correctional amenities in international locations like Norway, which boasts one of many lowest recidivism charges worldwide. Analysis additionally exhibits that each $1 spent on jail training and rehabilitation efforts saves greater than $4 on the price of reincarceration, in line with the Division of Justice.

"In California, we all know that that rigorous rehabilitation is the one technique to scale back recidivism and improve group security," Newsom spokeswoman Diana Crofts-Pelayo advised Newsweek in an announcement. "And rehabilitation works greatest once we present alternatives for people to raised themselves. The identical goes for our public security establishments and there’s no higher instance than San Quentin Rehabilitation Middle. We're working daily to meaningfully enhance public security by enhancing rehabilitative alternatives to the incarcerated inhabitants.”

Greater than 60 submissions have been acquired for the two-day pageant, organizers mentioned. The brief movie class will likely be judged by a panel of actors, writers and producers, together with Williams and Maclin, in addition to Vanessa Williams, Esai Morales, Gbenga Akinnagbe and Nnamdi Asomugha.

<img id="10897519" alt="" caption="" src=""Sing Sing" director Greg Kwedar, left, alongside actor Clarence Maclin, co-writer John "Divine G" Whitfield, actors Jon-Adrian Velasquez, Sean "Dino" Johnson, Sean San Jose and co-writer/producer Clint Bentley at last year's festival. (Courtesy: SQFF)" credit="" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="1037" height="656" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 768px) 1024px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot_17-10-2025_125517_www.dropbox.com_.jpeg?w=640&quality=75&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot_17-10-2025_125517_www.dropbox.com_.jpeg?w=750&quality=75&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot_17-10-2025_125517_www.dropbox.com_.jpeg?w=1000&quality=75&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot_17-10-2025_125517_www.dropbox.com_.jpeg?w=1200&quality=75&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot_17-10-2025_125517_www.dropbox.com_.jpeg?w=1360&quality=75&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot_17-10-2025_125517_www.dropbox.com_.jpeg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Screenshot_17-10-2025_125517_www.dropbox.com_.jpeg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1"/> That trade jury may even consider an expanded screenplay and documentary pitch competitors, which acquired 31 submissions from incarcerated writers in state prisons from Mississippi to California.

Maclin, who costarred in Sing Sing, a 2023 movie about his incarceration on the maximum-security jail in New York, joined the pageant final yr for its opening night time screening. Maclin's fellow forged member, Jon-Adrian "JJ" Velasquez, can be scheduled to attend the opening night time screening of The Sing Sing Chronicles, a documentary about his exoneration of a 1998 homicide conviction simply two weeks earlier than the 2024 pageant.

Cofounder Cori Thomas mentioned the pageant affords a platform for the “transformational impression” of applications corresponding to these supplied on the San Quentin Media Middle.

“It is a chance for residents who've participated in these coaching applications — from journalists to podcasters to the filmmakers who're coaching and dealing there — to share their inventive work and contribute to altering the cultural narrative,” Thomas advised Newsweek in an announcement. “So far, the recidivism charge of returning residents who have been a part of the Media Middle program previous to launch, is zero.”

Gonsoulin, in the meantime, mentioned festivalgoers ought to "depart their expectations at residence," predicting that many will depart the two,500-inmate facility with a vastly reimagined perspective.

<img id="10872109" alt="" caption="A pair of woman walk into a main entryway during a media tour at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., Wednesday, July 26, 2023. In March of 2023 Gov. Gavin Newsom announced California intends to transform the prison into the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)" src="Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans in 2023 to transform the notorious prison into San Quentin Rehabilitation Center. (AP/Eric Risberg)" credit="" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="8103" height="5402" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP23208740220489.jpg?w=640&quality=75&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP23208740220489.jpg?w=750&quality=75&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP23208740220489.jpg?w=1000&quality=75&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP23208740220489.jpg?w=1200&quality=75&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP23208740220489.jpg?w=1360&quality=75&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP23208740220489.jpg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AP23208740220489.jpg?w=1600&quality=75&webp=1"/> "When you come into the jail, it is a complete totally different ambiance," he mentioned. "I have not met an individual who got here within San Quentin who did not depart considering in another way."

The filmmakers needs to be universally accepted as proficient creators who made egregious errors, people who find themselves admittedly nonetheless making an attempt to "determine it out," Gonsoulin mentioned.

"It is giving them goal," he advised Newsweek. "They will see — they could've been messing up earlier than, however now they wish to act proper as a result of they wish to be part of this."