This Saturday at 7 PM, the International Children’s Media Center (at 625 N. Kingsbury) will present a program of international short films titled “If Only.” The films were selected by inmates at Cook County Correctional Facility as part of WorldScene, a 14-week arts residency and job training program designed, according to the ICMC, to “support self-determination among marginalized and court-involved youth ages 18-24.” “If Only” consists of six films from six countries, which were selected from a pool of more than 150 entries. The program—which involves watching, discussing, and curating the entries—is the brainchild of ICMC executive director Nicole Dreiske, though she received ample support from Elli Montgomery, director of the Sheriff’s Anti-Violence Effort (SAVE) at the correctional facility. I spoke with Dreiske last week about the program’s design and how it affected the prisoners who took part in it.
What consistently came up among the front-line staff that we interviewed—and it was fascinating—is that, because young people are information sponges and see so much media, people who might not have been well-versed in cognitive behavioral therapy or clinical social work are really familiar with the mechanisms—the way they’ll be approached, the way people would talk to them. A lot of them are even aware of nonviolent conflict resolution. And the clinical social work staff were saying these youth aren’t talking the way they used to. They are harder to engage than ever before. And if you don’t talk, if you don’t have access to any positive discourse, all of [your] toxic experiences go inward. So what was happening among young women and young men—because we were talking to the Night Ministry, Jewish Child & Family Services, and DCFS—is that they knew the dialogue, they just weren’t participating. They were not able to connect.
The guys get a rating sheet for each film that has four criteria and room for comments, which are shared with the directors [of the films]. I think this is a tremendous thing for the participants. If you know that every time you write a comment, it’s going to reach the person who made the film you saw, there’s an understanding that your ideas are going beyond the walls of your jail. That’s really empowering.
