Film shows inmates, victims making art

Contributed photo One of two Philadelphia murals created by men in prison and victims of crime and documented in the film “Concrete, Steel & Paint.”

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By Terry Morris , Staff Writer 6:45 PM Thursday, November 12, 2009

DAYTON — Co-director Tony Heriza started working on “Concrete Steel & Paint” in 2003. Six years later, he’s still amazed that a collaboration between “people who have done harm” and “people who have been harmed” could work so well.

The independent documentary, which will have its premiere Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Neon Movies, depicts the creation of a mural by prison inmates and victims of crime.

The 55-minute film includes encounter sessions where the two sides express their views and feelings about punishment, remorse and forgiveness. The subject of their painting is healing.

Heriza, a former Daytonian, graduate of Antioch College and co-founder of Cityfolk, produces educational materials for the American Friends Service Committee. The film was a separate project, but meshes with the AFSC’s mission: to follow “the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.”

A discussion with Heriza, public defender Carl Goraleski and University of Dayton law professor Vernellia Randall will follow the local showing.

The film began to take shape in Heriza’s mind when he learned about the prison arts class from his wife, who works with a community-based arts program in Philadelphia.

Making it posed some serious problems — the first being how to take cameras into prison when the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections would not permit any of the prisoners’ identities to be revealed.

“How do you reveal someone’s humanity without showing their face?” Heriza said.

“It was the men in the prison arts class who encouraged us to overcome that. ‘C’mon, be creative,’ ” they said.

Limited to just showing their hands at work, or other partial views of them as their voices were heard, he used the restriction to express the prisoners’ status as being mostly invisible to society.

Yellow Springs resident and Wright State University film professor Jim Klein edited “Concrete Steel & Paint.”

Heriza said his contributions were significant.

“Jim has a great sense for how to craft a film into an emotional experience. He’s great at making an audience care and wonder what’s going to happen next.”

The documentary is being released under the umbrella of New Day Films, a cooperative established by Klein and Julia Reichert that has grown to 75 members, Heriza said.

His wish is that the film will “stir people to decide this is something they should think about.”

He added that it’s far from an isolated issue. “In 1980, there were 300,000 people in federal prisons. By 2000 that had grown to 2.2 million.”

How to go

What: “Concrete Steel & Paint,” a film by Tony Heriza and Cindy Burstein

Where: Neon Movies, 130 E. Fifth St., Dayton

When: Noon Saturday, Nov. 14

Cost: $5

More info: (937) 222-7469 or www.neonmovies.com

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