About the Initiative

Although one in 100 Americans is currently incarcerated, filmmakers are willing to go where many of us never will — prisons, Death Row, juvenile detention centers, and remote courtrooms — to tell stories hidden from public view. Active Voice knit these stories into a larger, fact-filled narrative that helped criminal justice advocates pull back the curtain on outdated and unjust policies that cripple families and disproportionally affect African Americans. Our deep, decade-long involvement with leading organizations from the Equal Justice Initiative to the Department of Justice was built on the strength of films that are intimate (Stevie, 2002), irrefutable (Race to Execution), and riveting (Gideon’s Army, Kids for Cash).