By Susan MacLaury

On any given day in the US more than 50,000 kids are imprisoned, severely limiting their futures. This fact deeply troubled us and prompted our search for a way to address it cinematically, realistically, and tempered with hope.  We are now raising funds to finish Virtually Free on Kickstarter.

In early 2017 we met Mark Strandquist, co-director of Performing Statistics in Richmond, VA. They were to partner that summer with young detainees to create activist art, including a virtual reality jail cell, and we decided to document the 8-week program that brought detainees from detention to an art program daily to work with different artists. Their culminating project would be the creation of a virtual jail cell that would be incorporated into training for all 700 members of the Richmond police force to open their eyes to the impact of incarceration on children.

André Robert Lee, who had directed one of the episodes in our Webby-nominated digital series, “The Election Effect,” joined us as the film’s director. Like us, André was immediately interested and as a social activist he also saw the film’s potential to contribute to potential change in America’s juvenile detention system. The director of The Prep School Negro and producer of I’m not a Racist, am I?, André is an experienced outreach and engagement expert with a network of thousands of schools and cultural programs who have seen his films. He was the perfect partner for the outreach and social engagement we are planning for Virtually Free.

Imagine what these kids could do for themselves and society if given the attention and care they’ve lacked but desperately need. Virtually Free will be a vehicle to create conversations nationally among police, at-risk teens, juvenile justice advocates, and arts educators. It gives a voice to those who’ve been silenced before they were ever given the opportunity to speak. Let’s not give up on any of our kids.