Black Voices in the Arts Film Screening

of "Since I Been Down" and Q&A with Director Gilda Sheppard

Join us for a screening of the documentary "Since I Been Down", followed by a virtual Q&A with the film's director, Gilda Sheppard, PHD.

Join us for a screening of the documentary "Since I Been Down", which tells the dramatic story of how an American community held captive by 1990’s punitive policies lead children into gangs, violence, and for a false sense of safety, security and prosperity, this community rushed to discard the poorest, targeted brown and black youth into prisons for life. Nearly forty years later, a model and pathway to justice and healing is led from inside prison walls. A pathway uncovering, why children turn to violence, and a model of justice to transform their lives, prisons, justice and our own humanity. This is a story told by those who live it.

The screening will be followed by a virtual Q&A with the film's director, Gilda Sheppard.

Black Voices in the Arts is hosted in recognition of the national African American Read-In initiative, started by the National Council of Teachers of English. This event series focuses on celebrating Black stories through guest artists, writers and poets, with activities and book sharing for all ages. Learn more about the African American Read In at https://ncte.org/get-involved/african-american-read-in/

About the Director: 

Gilda Sheppard, PhD, is the Director, Executive Producer and writer of locally, nationally and internationally award winning documentary film Since I Been Down. Sheppard has screened her documentaries throughout the United States, internationally in Canada, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, the Festival Afrique Cannes Film Festival, and in Germany at the International Black Film Festival in Berlin. 

Sheppard is a 2017 Hedgebrook Fellow for documentary film and a 2019 recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship. Sheppard is faculty Emerita of Sociology, Cultural and Media Literacy at Evergreen State College in Tacoma.

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