Gilda sheppard is an award-winning filmmaker. She has screened her documentaries all over the U.S. and abroad. Sheppard is a 2017 Hedgebrook Fellow in documentary film and a 2019 recipient a Artist Trust Fellowship. Her documentaries include stories of resilience of Liberian women and children refugees in Ghana; stories of three generations of Black families in an urban neighborhood; and a film ethnography of stories from folklore started by Zora Neale Hurston in Alabama’s AfricaTown. Sheppard has been teaching sociology classes in Washington State prisons for over a decade. She also serves as co-founder of Freedom Education Project Puget Sound, an organization that offers college-credit courses at Washington Correctional Center for Women. She is a member the faculty at The Evergreen State College Tacoma campus.
“Since I Been Down” launches on VOD May 24.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
GS: Using archival footage, visual metaphors, first-person interviews, dance, and masquerade, “Since I Been Down” tells the dramatic story of how, in America’s backyard, a community held captive by racist policies targeting gangs and drugs sacrifices their youth for a false sense of safety and prosperity.
Nearly 40 years later the true path to freedom is now from within their prison walls. This is the story of those who live it.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
GS: When I completed filming my documentary “Women Together as One” in the Buduburam Liberian refugee camp in Ghana, a woman in the camp said, “You know, sis Gilda, the same AK-47 in child soldiers’ hands in the Liberian civil war are in your children’s hands; you need to do something about that.” Looking around in my home state of Washington, particularly the city of Tacoma, I became acutely aware of the impact of punitive polices — three strikes, hard time for armed crime, no parole — on all our children, and particularly poor Black and Brown children.
I made “Since I Been Down” because I am worried about our children, and am acutely concerned with how the culture of punishment impacts their lives.
The journey to completing “Since I Been Down” took 12 years. This time period allowed me to be close to the storytellers, increasing access, production quality, trust and an intimacy that built a shared community. It was a privilege to receive their home media and oral stories, to hear their analyses and philosophies, as well to witness their inspiration, mistakes, and hope. I embraced that witnessing in “Since I Been Down.”
W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?
GS: Our culture of punishment is how we treat our children. It tells us who we as a society, and is embedded in our policies. I set out to interrogate what bell hooks asked: “For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
GS: Access, funding, and time. It can be difficult to gain access inside prison.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Let us know how you got the film produced.
GS: Our primary source of funding was Family Foundations. As part of fundraising, I would bring people who appear in the movie to pitch discussions for authenticity.
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
GS: My passion for storytelling as a transformative medium and as something we all share yet [react to]You can use it in many different ways. It’s fascinating.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
GS: I was once told, “You are afraid of success. That is the reason it is taking you so long.” Also: “Hurry up and complete this!”
While time is important, I remember a colleague in Cuba who said to me, “We go slow because we are in a hurry.” That’s me.
W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?
GS: Listen.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
GS: I am inspired by Kathleen Collins, director of “Losing Ground,” and what she says about directing. Also, Euzhan Palcy’s “Sugar Cane Alley,” “A Dry White Season,” etc., and the films of Shirley Clarke.
W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you creative? If so, how?
GS. As artists, we cannot help but make the best of this situation. We are looking at how to bring people to our films through digital accessibility, such as community screenings or film festivals. We have found that digital screenings can help us reach a wider audience. In fact, “Since I Been Down” has had over 135 screenings across the country.
W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What steps do you believe are necessary to make the industry more inclusive?
GS: Make the films and TV shows you want.
Source: Women And Hollywood