Centering Lived Experience: Hidden Lives Illuminated
A screening of Hidden Lives Illuminated, Summer 2019. Screenings ran seven nights a week for a month.
Sean conceived and led this three-year project, which was funded by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage. He assembled a team of advisors and hired a project team that taught script writing and animation inside two Pennsylvania prisons. Incarcerated artists wrote, narrated and animated 20 original films about their lives.
The completed films were screened every night for a month on the exterior walls of Eastern State Penitentiary. More than 4,000 people attended the screenings, and audience members wrote 875 postcards that were delivered back to the filmmakers inside the prisons.
The full project team at the State Correctional Institution at Chester.
Sean with filmmaker Clarence during the production of the Hidden Lives Illuminated films.
The project received critical acclaim, and the films remain on view online.
The project was inspired by and modeled from the 96 Acres Project led by artist Maria Gaspar at Cook County Jail since 2012, specifically the animation "Freedom/Time," a project orchestrated by artist Damon Locks and developed with the Jane Addams Hull House and Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project, and presented as part of Stories from the Inside/Outside on September 15, 2015.
Quasheam works on his film, Lymph Notes at the State Correctional Institution at Chester, using a flat light table.
About 4,000 people attended the screenings over the course of a month.
In the Event Hub, where audience members wrote postcards to the incarcerated filmmakers between screenings, listened to short presentations by community leaders, and met activists working on prison reform.
Audience members hand-illustrated and wrote 875 postcard to the incarcerated filmmakers, who could not attend the screenings.
The Finale of Hidden Lives Illuminated, when family members and teaching artists introduced each film.
Read the Summative Evaluation