In partnership with Odyssey Impact, Westfield Memorial Library is launching a new film series featuring powerful award-winning documentaries intended to increase awareness and conversations around contemporary social issues. The films will examine a variety of issues including healing, racial justice, mass incarceration, community trauma, allyship, relationship building, second chances, and more.

Following the screenings, attendees will have the opportunity for talk-back with film creators, and facilitated conversations with relevant experts and community organizations. The vision of Odyssey Impact is a just, more inclusive, and hopeful world, supported by a compassionately connected and activated society.

An investigative documentary about violent crime and juvenile justice.

Second Shot (27 min) investigates the complexities of the US parole process through the lens of one of New York’s most examined murders of the early 90’s: a shootout on Christmas night during a screening of Godfather III. Through intimate storytelling from both the victim and perpetrator, the film exposes the impossibility of using punishment as a form of healing.

Following the film, attendees will hear from the film's director Andrew Michael Ellis, and Equity and Criminal Justice Reform Policy Analyst Ashanti Jones.

Andrew Michael Ellis

As a director, Andrew is known for both demystifying complex social issues, and for using dance to tell story. The heartfelt imagery in Andrew’s films attracted the eye of directors like Terence Malick and Gareth Edwards. Last year, Andrew served as camera operator and Second Unit DP for Terence Malick’s The Way of the Wind, and this year for Gareth Edwards’ True Love.

Ashanti Jones

Ashanti is a Policy Analyst in the Criminal Justice Reform Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

As a Masters level policy and planning social worker, Ashanti empowers communities to seek systems level change to reduce the impact of inequitable social institutions on people’s everyday life. 

A passionate advocate for mitigating adverse childhood experiences, slowing the school to prison pipeline and overall abolition, Ashanti’s work is rooted in African studies, social work pedagogy and psychology. She currently works as the 150 Years is Enough Campaign Manager at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice - working in tandem with communities and decision makers to close New Jersey’s youth prisons and establish a community-based continuum of care that priorities youth and reduces our reliance on incarceration. 

She is also a professor of Africana Studies at William Paterson University. Ashanti holds a MSW from Columbia University and is currently a doctoral candidate at Drexel University.

Sponsored by the MLK Association of Westfield, Town of Westfield Human Relations Advisory Commission, and Westfield Memorial Library

Watch the Trailer