Visualizing Abolition Screening Series: Beyond Access

On view in the IAS Screening Room is a selection of short films curated by Visualizing Abolition Visiting Faculty Fellow Dr. Pooja Rangan. Prisons deny and censor the access of those trapped inside them—to information, to intimacy, to community, to meaningful work, to nourishment of all kinds, and perhaps most cruelly, to care. This program assembles a series of films, including works by filmmakers incarcerated in California as well as others without that lived experience. Together, these works confront the debilitating impacts of these restrictions and reveal how the disabling logic of the prison is extended to other institutional spaces (the hospital, the university), turning access into a scarce commodity by enclosing what should be held in common. Questioning the carceral and state-sponsored productions of disability and accessibility, the short films together reveal the courage of people working despite limitations to produce collective access for one another, described simply and beautifully by disability justice activist Leah-Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha as “revolutionary love without charity.” Thanh Tran Dying in Prison, 2022 HD Video (color, sound), 3 minutes Courtesy of the artist Carolyn Lazard Pre-Existing Condition, 2019 HD video (color, sound), 6 minutes Courtesy of the artist and Trautwein Herleth3 Anthony Alejandrez Another Rainy Day, 2023 Phone video (color, sound), 3 minutes Courtesy of the artist Jordan Lord After…After… (Access), 2018 HD Video (color, sound), 16 minutes Courtesy of the artist Rahsaan “New York” Thomas Friendly Signs, 2023 Video (color, sound) 21 minutes Courtesy of Tommy Wickerd, Empowerment Ave & System Impact Media

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