APPROACH

Children have an enormous capacity to adapt to insanity.
- Nathan McCall, Makes Me Wanna Holler

The Word Is Love examines what happens to children as the result of parental arrest and incarceration.  We spent more than a year teaching workshops in creative expression to our subjects.  This allowed us the intimate access necessary to record their stories. The children tell us about the events and circumstances that impact their lives. These are some things we learn:

- what happens at the time of a parent’s arrest
- disruptions in their lives
- life with their caretakers
- what life was like with Mom/ Dad                     
- their struggle with feelings about their parent(s)
- what prison visits are like
- their anger
- their experience with the stigma of incarceration
- the challenges they face once a parent is released
- their hopes for the future

CINEMATIC STYLE
The children’s interviews are combined with footage of occurrences in their daily lives.  We look at their home environments, record them at play, follow them on prison visits and outings with caretakers and mentors.  Segments of interviews with caretakers, parents who have been released and are struggling to resume a parental role,  caseworkers, congressmen, law enforcement and  childcare professionals will be used to provide additional insight and sometimes, opposing views.  The use of stills, archival footage and newspaper clippings, glimpses of rallies, detention and childcare facilities create a multifaceted picture of their world.
 

DISTRIBUTION
National television broadcasting will allow The Word Is Love to impact a great number of viewers. This documentary is suitable for IFC, PBS, A&E, Bravo and other cable channels. Channel Four and Arte are likely foreign venues. The Word Is Love will screen at selected film festivals and we plan on a limited theatrical release. There are additional opportunities for viewers through educational and home video sales.

 

EDUCATIONAL AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH
There is a general scarcity of information regarding children whose parents are incarcerated. 
The Word Is Love offers valuable insights from the most authentic source possible; the children themselves. Our documentary affords an opportunity to use the power of storytelling and the impact of film to inform and mobilize communities. Combining The Word Is Love with educational and community outreach efforts will foster constructive dialogues about the special needs of the children of incarcerated parents and issues that affect them.  We can begin problem solving on a community level, thus contributing to regional and national efforts to tackle the challenges that engulf these children, their parents and their caretakers.
 

CONCLUSION

The greatest thing you’ll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return

Eden Ahbez, Nature Boy