The Adachi Project’s New Film Series, Made ‘For, By and With the People’

In this country, people with criminal records are regularly used in fear-mongering news reports or political catchphrases to sway the general public’s opinion about crime, violence and public safety.

It’s no surprise, then, that many find it hard to accept those who’ve spent time behind bars as full human beings. But a criminal conviction doesn’t negate a person’s need to learn, love, play with their kids and practice religious ceremonies. Hell, some folks who’ve been incarcerated even find joy in painting images of hummingbirds.

On Tuesday, Dec. 2, San Francisco’s Roxie Theater hosts Defender: Off The Record, a series of films about three people who’ve seen the ins and outs of the criminal justice system.

Accompanying the films is a discussion with filmmaker, organizer and rapper Boots Riley and San Francisco’s sitting public defender Manohar “Mano” Raju.

The duo will be joined by two subjects of the films: Bayview-Hunters Point–raised rapper Charles ‘Prezi’ Gardner and Julia Arroyo, the executive director of the Young Women’s Freedom Center.

The subject of the third film, Salesh Prasad, was born in Fiji and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of six. He was raised in Modesto, where a rough childhood left him scarred. During an altercation at the age of 22, Prasad took someone’s life and was later charged with second-degree murder.

He served 27 years in prison before being granted parole. As soon as he was released, he was taken into ICE custody.

Although not currently incarcerated, Prasad is haunted by the fear of deportation, given the administration’s escalated actions against immigrants. Additionally, as a queer man, he faces potential persecution in Fiji. Prasad and his legal team are seeking a full pardon from Governor Newsom.

“There’s so much you can say about the narrative of crime, and how that has been so weaponized in San Francisco and the Bay Area,” says Henry Kinder, a creative producer at Even/Odd who also directed two of the three films.

“I think we have a real opportunity to present an alternative vision for what public safety really looks like,” he says.

A filmmaker who uses his skills to bring attention to injustice, Kinder insists that correcting the narrative is more than just about how the story is told.

“We want these stories to be made for, by and with the people of San Francisco,” he says, excited to show the films next week to the very communities featured.

The short films are poetic, touching even, but not corny. Instead, there’s a edge to them, along with a visual gloss that makes for a highly produced but relatable aesthetic.

“It sort of defies the expectation,” Kinder says, about a public defender’s office producing films of such quality. But that’s part of the strategy. “A lot of that comes from trying to reach audiences that are closer to the clientele that the public defender serves,” he says.

Kinder adds that a short “sentencing mitigation video” will also screen on Dec. 2, allowing the audience to see the media he and his team create to steer judges into more lenient sentencing.

It’s all part of a push to understand and represent defendants’ full humanity, both in media and in the courtroom. That’s the central mission of The Adachi Project, an organization carrying on the work of the late San Francisco public defender Jeff Adachi.

When a person’s story is told well, with thorough context, the result tends to be empathy. And when one commits themselves to comprehending the complexities of another person, it might start as a social study but can quickly become a public service.

Somewhere in the process, it morphs into an art form — in this case, one that’s fit for the silver screen.

The Adachi Project Presents ‘Defender: Off The Record’ on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the Roxie Theater (3117 16th St., San Francisco). Tickets and more information here.