Life Without: Youth With Incarcerated Parents Tell Their Own Stories

Several children of incarcerated parents spent a week with a team of filmmakers in 2009, putting together short documentaries about their experience for this six-segment compilation. An intertitle notes that these North Carolina kids share their predicament with 2.4 million others in the U.S. Fourteen-year-old Jamesha says she had a perfect relationship with her father before he went to prison, but afterward she held a grudge and suffered from low self-esteem. “I felt like I was nothing without him,” Jamesha says, but she finds solace in her mom, her journal, and a friend in a similar situation. One of 13 siblings, 13-year-old Ladarius describes his dad as irresponsible for getting involved with drugs, while 15-year-old Cree says he has no idea what his father did. The youngest, 10-year-old JaQuila, appears to enjoy a loving relationship with her grandmother but breaks down when she admits that “it feels bad to have a parent in prison.” Throughout, the subjects in Life Without offer advice and encouragement to their peers. Sixteen-year-old Markayle, for instance, says that his situation has made him stronger, and he helps out around the house more than he would otherwise. DVD extras include producer Melissa Mummert's Perversion of Justice, a documentary about Hamedah Hasan, a mother of three who was a victim of mandatory sentencing—receiving life in prison for minor involvement in a drug conspiracy. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (K. Fennessy)