The Odyssey Project
Watch 13-min Rough-Cut Opening Scene
film and impact campaign that humanizes systemic inequality
With matters of racial justice dividing the nation, a new film delivers a story of hope, connection, and true change. The Odyssey Project humanizes the issue of systemic inequality in America’s criminal justice system and brings with it an impact campaign that will drive large-scale engagement in solutions.
ISSUE OVERVIEW
The criminalization of youth of color is a driving force behind America’s destructive mass incarceration system, resulting in the largest prison population in the world. Young men of color who become entangled in this system often find themselves trapped with little hope of escape. This systemic injustice, fueled by racial bias, has proven deeply entrenched, even as racial justice movements strive to address one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time.
In response, the California State Legislature recently introduced a groundbreaking tool: the California Racial Justice Act (RJA). Designed to confront racial bias within the state’s criminal justice system, the RJA allows defense attorneys to challenge arrests, charges, and sentencing if they can prove that race played a role. Once thought to be a landmark Act, the RJA faces relentless opposition, and its very survival is now in jeopardy. Contact us for partnership opportunities.
FILM OVERVIEW
Four incarcerated teens of color embark on a transformational journey through an experimental theater program. Working alongside undergraduate students as peers, they create and perform their own adaptation of the Homeric epic poem, The Odyssey. Following their performance, the film intimately chronicles their decade-long struggle to rebuild their lives and escape the grip of the criminal justice system. Interweaving personal stories, expert analysis, and the fight for racial and criminal justice reform—including a landmark case under the California Racial Justice Act—the film and its groundbreaking impact campaign serve as a catalyst for one of the defining civil rights movements of our time.
Impact campaign
The film’s groundbreaking impact campaign leverages strategic partnerships and a custom-designed streaming and impact platform to empower audiences with immediate engagement opportunities:
· Drive Criminal Justice Reform: Actions for the enforcement and expansion of the RJA, ensuring racial bias in arrests, charges and sentencing is challenged.
Engage Communities: Partnerships with racial and criminal justice reform leaders, mobilizing audiences to come together and amplify the work of frontline community organizations.
Immediate, Sustained and Measurable Impact: Opportunities for audiences to immediately engage in and monitor racial and criminal justice initiatives
The impact platform, engineered to facilitate sustained impact across a broad range of issues will launch with the film and then be made available for free to filmmakers, activists, NGO’s and communities engaged in social and environmental issues across the globe.
STATUS
Status and Funding: The Odyssey Project has been in production for 10 years and is presently raising finishing funds for film completion and impact campaign. The project is fiscally sponsored by Creative Visions, a 501c3 tax-exempt organization.
Contact us for partnership opportunities.
Film synopsis
Four incarcerated teens of color embark on a transformational journey through an experimental theater program. Working alongside undergraduate students as peers, they create and perform their own adaptation of the Homeric epic poem, The Odyssey. Following their performance, the film intimately chronicles their decade-long struggle to rebuild their lives and escape the grip of the criminal justice system.
Joining the film team as producers, with cameras in hand, the teens share raw, firsthand accounts of the challenges they face reintegrating into society. As mirrored in Odysseus’ cursed journey, they confront various forms of racial injustice while fighting to break free from a system designed to drag them back.
The film weaves their personal stories with expert commentary on America’s mass incarceration system, highlighting the criminalization of youth of color. Hope emerges with the passage of the California Racial Justice Act (RJA), which offers a chance to challenge racially biased arrests, charges, and sentencing. However, fierce opposition reveals the systemic resistance to change and puts the landmark legislation in jeopardy.
In its powerful conclusion, the film turns to the California Racial Justice Act (RJA) and the battle for criminal justice reform. The 2021 California Racial Justice Act (Act) prohibits the state from seeking or obtaining a criminal conviction or from imposing a sentence based on race, ethnicity, or national origin (AB 2542).
Featuring insights from leading RJA attorneys and the state public defender’s office, it explores the act’s origins, promises, and the fierce opposition defense attorneys face in trying to enforce it. Four years since its passage, less than twelve RJA cases have been successful, hinting at a deeply entrenched web of racial bias in the system. If allowed to proceed, the now-retroactive RJA could be transformative—potentially freeing thousands who were unjustly charged and imprisoned.
In the final act, the film zeroes in on Donelle, facing a crushing 18-year mandatory sentence after being charged with multiple felonies. Determined to challenge the system and prove Donelle has been racially targeted, the film team helps to launch a racial bias study and secures a renowned defense attorney who then files an RJA discovery motion. In a landmark triumph that could reshape countless lives, the mere threat of exposing racial disparities compels the court to slash Donelle’s sentence from 18 years to a mere 17 months. This victory stands as a powerful testament to the untapped potential of the RJA.
The fight to enforce the RJA emerges as one of our time’s defining civil rights battles.
