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“RECONSTRUCTION HAS STOPPED THE NONSENSE”

Documentary Making in the Community Capacity Building of Returning Citizens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2021

Townsand Price-Spratlen ,
Joseph Guzman ,
Charles Patton  and
William Goldsby
Townsand Price-Spratlen*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Ohio State University
Joseph Guzman
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Ohio State University
Charles Patton
Affiliation:
Puget Sound Regional Council
William Goldsby
Affiliation:
Reconstruction, Incorporated
*
Corresponding author: Townsand Price-Spratlen, Ohio State University, Department of Sociology, 238 Townshend Hall, 1885 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail: price-spratlen.1@osu.edu
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Abstract

Increasing research attention is being given to former felons, or returning citizens, after their release from prison. This paper contributes to that dialogue by exploring the documentary-making process of a grassroots organization founded by and for returning citizens and their families, and the contributions it made when it was completed in 1996, and continues to make today. Little is known about how community organizations can use the making of an organizational documentary to build the capacities of the organization, its affiliates, a neighborhood, and social change. By exploring the collaborations and challenges that took place during the local reintegration process back into family and community, the start and completion of the documentary in the mid-1990s was quite innovative. This article analyzes reciprocal tensions of service (Simmel 1908) reflected in the documentary when it was completed in 1996, and its continuing relevance to the growth of returning citizenship today.

Keywords

Returning Citizens (former felons)Mass IncarcerationGrassroots OrganizationsCommunity Capacity BuildingDocumentary Filmmaking
Type
State of the Art
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , Fall 2021 , pp. 393 - 415
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Hutchins Center for African and African American Research

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