New Abolitionists Radio: From Incarceration to Education w/ Skylar Economy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:42:26 — 46.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

Welcome to tonight’s broadcast of New Abolitionists Radio where we take a look at the news concerning what we call prison slavery made legal after the so-called abolition of slavery in 1865 in the United States. We will go over some news from around the country and share our profile in freedom from prison slavery as well as a past abolitionist in profile. Special Guest Skylar Economy will be joining us tonight.

Skylar Economy, Producer & Co-Director

Skylar Economy picked up her first camera in middle school — sparking her ever-growing interest in digital storytelling. Since then, she has worked in the media and film industry with both grassroots organizations and large corporations. In May 2016, Economy graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Film & Media Studies, while maintaining multiple leadership roles in film and media organizations on campus. She spent two summers with the CNN Documentary Unit assisting on more than 20 films, in both New York City and Atlanta. With Outside the Lens, a nonprofit media literacy organization, she helped teach
photography empowerment workshops to young women in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, and
has also traveled to Bosnia-Herzegovina, in order to assist U.S. and Bosnian high school
students to create a short film for the Mediteran Film Festival.

Post-graduation, she has worked for award-winning filmmakers, Lucy Walker, Charles Ferguson, and Katy Grannan. She is the founder of Photogenie Films, LLC, a film production company and rental service, and serves as a director and producer for client-based film work. In 2015, she began producing and directing FITE Film (From Incarceration to Education), a film project about formerly
incarcerated student meant for those impacted by mass incarceration. She is a selected
Commitment Maker for the Clinton Global Initiative in 2016 for FITE Film, and a finalist for
the Red Bull Amaphiko Academy for Social Entrepreneurs.

From Incarceration to Education (FITE Film), is a short “educational” documentary film meant to inspire currently incarcerated and system impacted individuals toward higher education and mentorship by showing the success stories of formerly incarcerated students at UC Berkeley. The film is screened in prisons, jails, youth detention centers, college campuses, and followed by a Q&A session with individuals affiliated with re-entry mentorship organizations depending on the location and demographics of the screening.

Since the film’s inception, FITE has been had successful screenings across the U.S. with criminal justice organizations, schools, and prisons, jails + youth detention centers. Screenings such as: San Quentin Prison (with Prison University Project), Vera Institute of Justice (NYC), University of Washington + UBB, SF County Jail + Discovering Your True Self, UC Berkeley, UW Tacoma, and many others such as UCLA, USC, community colleges, re-entry organizations.