Lindy Boudstedt is passionate about children behind bars.
The independent filmmaker teaches incarcerated youth how to document their day-to-day lives through video. This has resulted in a series of videos being screened at various locations.
One of these screenings happened here at Shoreline Community College. Boudstedt came to talk about how she mentors children to “harness their voice and their stories” by teaching them the art of filmmaking. On top of having her students make beautiful, professional films that have been recognized by the likes of Macklemore https://www.dcyf.wa.gov/news/macklemore-visits-green-hill-school-support-youth-artists, she hopes to pass on lessons on media literacy and promoting social justice causes.
She runs the non-profit S.H.A.R.E. which stands for Screenwriting for Healing, self-Actualization, Redemption, and Empathy. At her talk, Boudstedt spoke about her struggle to gain access to women’s prisons in comparison to youth detention centers. She has found much more success entering youth detention centers because administrators were more amenable to arts programming than women’s prisons.
One youth mentored through a partner program, The Bridge Music Project, Justin, spoke about his experience in the lobby of the SCC theater. He was shocked to learn he and his peers won an award https://www.dcyf.wa.gov/news/young-people-green-hill-school-win-national-anti-fentanyl-video-challenge for the music video they produced https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mm-zZ97t84. He produced the beat for a rap about fentanyl awareness, which was especially important to him and his peers because several overdoses had just happened in the detention center when they filmed the video.
Now, he is enjoying living in a group home. His caseworker who was there too said her and all her coworkers agree, “He is the best resident we’ve had in a long time”.
The screening lasted around half an hour, and an hour of thoughtful discussion followed. While the event included an audience of less than 15, the audience did include a few interested professors, a couple students, and SCC’s Vice President of DEIA, Brian Ramos.
The short films shown at the SCC screening include a documentary to raise awareness about the right of formerly incarcerated people in Washington to vote. Other films were spoken poetry by incarcerated youth accompanied by visuals filmed by them too. You can find these films and more produced through the S.H.A.R.E. program at https://sharescreenwriting.com/
