Apart

Streaming video - 2020

Since the beginning of the War on Drugs, the number of women in U.S. prisons has increased over 800%. The majority are mothers. Against the backdrop of a Midwestern state battling industrial decline and an opioid epidemic, APART offers an intimate portrait of three women incarcerated on drug-related charges who face the challenge of mothering their children first from prison and then after release. With the help of a unique re-entry program run by Malika, an advocate formerly incarcerated in the same prison, the women lean on each other to find the strength and support to rebuild their lives and relationships with their children. Counselors and instructors teach employment and life skills and help unpack the traumas of living in the wake of... addiction and longing for distant loved ones. By highlighting the women’s investment in their own futures and in one another, APART also offers a wider indictment of incarceration in America, underscoring the ways institutions and systems all too often prioritize punishment and discipline over healing. more