While incarcerated, Rahsaan appeared in several documentaries. After one did harm, and none financially enriched Rahsaan, he took charge and started making his own from San Quentin’s media center. On June 3, 2023, just four months after Rahsaan paroled, Friendly Signs, a short documentary he directed, wrote, and produced while in prison, premiered at the San Francisco Documentary Festival.
Additionally, just a month before, What These Walls Won’t Hold, a film made in collaboration with director Adamu Chan after he paroled from San Quentin but while Rahsaan was still inside, using footage from both sides of the wall, won the San Francisco International Film Festival. Now Rahsaan seeks to expand Empowerment Avenue into film, working in collaboration with system impacted people to tell their stories.
He credits The Marshall Project, Sundance Documentary Institute, and the Berkeley Film Foundation for providing the funds to make Friendly Signs and amplify its impact.
**We do not have an open application process into the program. We recruit writers who have already begun to publish their work.
Friendly Signs tells the story of Tommy Wickerd, a man serving 55 years who left a Deaf brother out in the world. Determined to make prison a safe space for his brother’s community, Tommy embarks on a journey to start a sign language class inside a San Quentin State Prison. Friendly Signs, debuted at San Francisco DocFest, then went on to be accepted into Double Exposure, The Atlantic Film Festival, Bravemakers, Kalakari, and Superfest Disability film festivals, where it won the 2024 Advocacy Award. Friendly Signs was made possible with grants from Sundance Documentary Institute, The Marshall Project, and Berkeley Film Foundation.
Directed by Corey Devon Arthur and Sandro Ramani, and produced by Sandro Ramani with Sara Keilly as Associate Producer, this groundbreaking film was created from inside New York State prisons — institutions without media centers. The project boldly calls out strip searches as state-sanctioned sexual assaults, challenging systems of control and dehumanization.
Executive Produced by Empowerment Avenue.
Painting Ourselves into Society tells the story of how Orlando O. Smith curated an art exhibition at the Berkeley Art Center, from his prison cell. He asked eight artists from around the country, “what does it mean to paint yourselves back into the consciousness of society?”
This short fiction, directed by Rahsaan Thomas is currently being submitted to film festivals and raising funds to extend into a feature. Painting Ourselves into Society was made possible by a fellowship from Right of Return USA.
