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Prison film fest brings Hollywood and healing to US jailhouse Estelle.Bronkhorst Mon, 10/27/2025 - 09:00 LOS ANGELES - Held inside a notorious prison among some of California s most dangerous felons, the San Quentin Film Festival is not your typical Hollywood affair.Red-carpet interviews take place just yards (meters) away from a now dormant execution chamber where hundreds of death-row inmates met grisly ends.Convicted murderers sit alongside famous actors and journalists, applauding films made by their fellow inmates.Among them is Ryan Pagan, serving 77 years for first-degree murder. I always wanted to be an actor -- but unfortunately that s not the life I ended up living, explains Pagan, prison tattoos peeking out from the short sleeves of his jailhouse-issue blue shirt.His film The Maple Leaf, made behind bars, is competing for best narrative short film -- a category only for currently or formerly incarcerated filmmakers.Though it did not win, the movie -- about a self-help group in which prisoners tackle guilt and shame -- won high praise from a jury including director Celine Song ( Past Lives ) and actor Jesse Williams ( Grey s Anatomy. ) Right now, I m just doing the work and rehabilitating myself. Part of the story of The Maple Leaf is about guys like me, he says. AFP | Karl Mondon The festival, launched last year, offers inmates a chance to meet mainstream filmmakers from the outside.Founder Cori Thomas, a playwright and screenwriter, had volunteered at the prison for years, and wanted a way to show her Hollywood peers the exceptional work being made in San Quentin. The only way would be for them to come in here to see it, she realised.After two successful editions, the festival will expand to a women s prison in 2026.San Quentin s film program is also a chance for inmates to confront their often brutal pasts.Prison warden Chance Andes told AFP that cathartic activities like filmmaking and events like the festival help reduce the violence and the tension within the walls. Inmates who cause fights or otherwise break prison rules temporarily lose their chance to participate. Andes says these lessons resonate after the prisoners are released. If we send people out without having resolved their trauma and having no skill set, no degree, no schooling, they re more likely to reoffend and cause more victims, he says.

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