Released (2013)

Director: Philip Messina

Run Time: 72 min.

Call Number: HV9276 .R45 2013

"'Released' is adapted from 'The Castle,' a 2008 Off Broadway play that starred four ex-cons speaking of their degradation and eventual redemption. The film has the same cast: Casimiro Torres, Kenneth Harrigan, Angel Ramos and Vilma Ortiz Donovan, all former longtime inmates of New York State prisons. Mr. Ramos alone served 30 years: 'How do I live like a normal human being,' he asks, 'when I have no idea what normal is?'

Performing in front of two audiences, one in a theater, the other in a prison, all four speak of the forces — religion, loved ones, epiphanies — that made them want to change; all four, now taxpaying jobholders, credit their success to the Castle, the 60-bed Manhattan residence run by the Fortune Society. In addition to shelter, the Castle provides career development and social training. Less than 10 percent of those who stayed there have returned to prison, according to the film."

—Daniel M. Gold, New York Times

Sifuna Okwethu (We Want What's Ours) (2011)

Director: Bernadette Atuahene
Run Time: 40 min.
Call Number: HD983 .S54 2011

"Sifuna Okwethu (We Want What's Ours) is a documentary film about loss, resistance, identity and the elusiveness of justice as experienced by the Ndolila family in their quest to get back their family land. Standing in their way are working class black homeowners who purchased portions of the Ndolila's land during apartheid. For the homeowners, the land and houses they have legally purchased are a reward for their hard work. It is the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams for a better life in the new democracy. For the Ndolilas, the land is part of their family legacy and hence deeply intertwined with their identity. Both sides have a legitimate right to the land, but whose rights will prevail?"
—From publisher's website