October 21-28, 2021
Film Screening: Watch Here

Register also for a live conversation with director Gilda Sheppard and author and activist adrienne maree brown on October 26, 4-5:30 pm, PDT. 

Since I Been Down tells the story of the impacts of the rising rates of incarceration on Tacoma, WA. The film is told through the eyes of a community impacted by lack of investment in resources and the fear-based policies of the 1980s and ‘90s that sacrificed and labeled their most-vulnerable children as irredeemable “super predators.”

​The film presents dramatic stories of how fear, racism and a false sense of safety, security and prosperity, arrested the development of one American community, discarding the poorest and targeting brown and black youth and led to the disappearance of an entire generation of children. 

Since I Been Down spotlights the life of Kimonti Carter and a group of his peers, young girls and boys, as they maneuver through a non-negotiable pathway to joining gangs as early as 11 years old and follows their trajectory into violent crimes and to prison. The film unravels intimate stories from interviews brought to life through archival footage, cinema verité discussions, masquerade and dance to cinematically unravel why children commit violent crime, and how these children now adults are breaking free from their fate by creating a model of justice that is transforming their lives, our humanity and a quality of life for all our children.