Abolition Film Society: Recess

Due to the process-based nature of the Session program, this project will undergo constant modifications; the features of this page provide accruing information on the project’s developments.

Abolition Film Society: Recess facilitated by artist Kriss Li, is a circle of creative exchanges between systems-impacted young adults in Recess’s Assembly Fellowship program and 3 members of Life-Line Creative Arts, a writing group inside Eastern Correctional Institution in Napanoch, New York. Developed as part of Recess’s Session X Assembly partnership, which brings together Session artists and Assembly fellows, this collaborative exchange between inside and outside began four months prior to the project space opening on February 7th, and will continue to unfold until its closing March 14th.

The first exchange began when reproductions of artworks by Assembly Fellows were shared with Life-Line Creative Arts writers. In response, each incarcerated participant wrote a short screenplay inspired by the artworks. Once received, Li and the Assembly Fellows, will transform the screenplays into a single short film, creatively integrating elements from all 3 screenplays. After completion, the film will be screened for the public and sent to members of Life-Line Creative Arts within the limitations of the prison system. Communication with Life Line Creative Arts is facilitated with Archive-Based Creative Arts, the art program of Parole Preparation Project.

From February 7–March 14, visitors to Abolition Film Society: Recess will experience a living archive of the project as it unfolds. The production studio and installation includes Kriss Li’s Abolition Film Society Volumes 1-2, inspirations, workshop materials, brainstorm notes, screenplays, storyboards, as well as props, costumes, and sets as they’re collected.

This is Volume 3 of the series Abolition Film Society, which shares films and filmmaking with prisoners. In Volume 1, Li shared a program of short films curated from the collection of experimental film distributor Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Center to incarcerated members of Prisoner Correspondence Project, a solidarity initiative for LGBTQ prisoners in the U.S. and Canada, within the limitations of the prison system—sending screenshots and transcripts by mail and playing audio over the phone—and paid participants to write about the films that they experienced through partial, multimedia fragments. For Volume 2, Li worked with an incarcerated collaborator and Prisoner Correspondence Project inside member, Amber Kim, to conceptualize a 2-channel silent film and produced flipbooks of the film to mail into prison. Both projects are accompanied by hour-long presentations where Li shares comprehensive documentation of their processes, operating as creative pedagogy tools on corresponding with prisoners: introducing anticipated challenges and providing strategies for circumventing limitations.

The Session X Assembly residency develops a more ambitious iteration of Abolition Film Society, which collectivize Li’s inside-outside practice that was undertaken independently in earlier editions.

Life Line Creative Arts is a writing group composed of Serious Soul Brother, Navigator, and Chase inside Eastern Correctional Institution in Napanoch, New York.

Archive-Based Creative Arts (ABCA) is a remote creative workshop, publishing platform and artist/author collective building collaborations across the wall. ABCA artists and authors engage creatively with personal, institutional and unconventional archives, while building our own. ABCA is a part of Parole Preparation Project, an organization that provides advocacy and critical support for people serving life sentences in New York State and those who have returned home.

Prisoner Correspondence Project is a Montreal-based solidarity project for over 4000 gay, lesbian, transsexual, transgender, gendervariant, two-spirit, intersex, bisexual and queer prisoners in Canada and the United States, linking them with people a part of these same communities outside of prison.