Check out the sequel to THE FARM – premiering on the National Geographic Channel as A DECADE BEHIND BARS: RETURN TO THE FARM on June 16th, 2009 at 8pm EST.
Posts Tagged ‘Angola Prison’
Book about Angola’s Warden Cain
Cain’s Redemption is an interesting book to check out if you know anything about Angola Prison or even if you are just interested in criminal justice. Written by Dennis Shere, the book details Warden Burl Cain’s tenure as warden of Angola Prison. The book can be found on Amazon.com.
Posted by hcdmedia
Questions for Cathy – A funny anecdote
Can you share a funny anecdote from your time at Angola?
Actually, humor keeps us sane!! I always say that Angola has even made me “a better man.” The men seem to appreciate it when “light” comments are made. I did have an offender tell me once when I lost a couple of quarters in a vending machine that “its like a bunch of people here at Angola – its a thief.”. Also I had a Death Row inmate ask a reporter if she was scared to come to Death Row at Angola. She answered no quickly and he replied even faster that she was braver than him because when he heard he was coming he was petrified!!
Posted by Cathy
Robert Wayne Williams (Executed in Angola 12-14-1983) was my father
Kimberly sent in this personal story:
I was 1 when my dad got in trouble in 1979 and when he was executed in 1983 I was 5. I was the victim for so long until I realized I was the victor. What do you mean Kim? Well, society tells us if you derived from nothing that you will be nothing. That is so not true. I am a well educated female owner of a Ladies Boutique and proud Pastor’s Wife, Mother of 2, and a saved and filled woman of God. My motto is “you don’t know my story or the things that I’ve been through you can’t feel my pain what I had to go through to get here you’ll never understand my praise so don’t try and figure it out because my Worship, my Worship is for real, I’ve been through to much not to worship him”.
My father robbed a local A&P store, and the funny thing is my mother was the getaway driver. When my dad was arrested he told my mom to turn state on him so that I would at least have 1 parent. Well sorry to say I did not have that, she gave me to my grandparents. Don’t get me wrong because I am glad she did, I just never understood the way a person could look at their own seed with hate, and then I met God who told me if your mother and father forsake you there am I to take you up and hide you in the secret of my tabernacle. I am so understanding today and I know that my life would not be if it were not for my parents I also know that when you are affected by crime you have a void that cannot be filled by pressing it down and hiding it you have to face who you are to hopefully improve others.
I have several people that heard of my father and some who even knew him, but I have not met anyone that actually “KNEW” him. I am seeking someone that can tell me what his last moments were like if you know of anyone or if you are that person please feel free to contact me.
If you knew her father – Robert Wayne Williams – or have information you would like to share with her, please reply to this post.
Posted by hcdmedia
Tune in tonight to watch A DECADE BEHIND BARS!
This sequel to THE FARM, THE FARM: 10 DOWN will premier as A DECADE BEHIND BARS: RETURN TO THE FARM on National Geographic Channel on tonight at 8pm. Tune in!
One decade after THE FARM: ANGOLA, USA (Oscar nominated 1999; two-time Emmy winner 1999), we go back inside Louisiana’s maximum security penitentiary, to catch up with our characters’ lives. While the theme of THE FARM was “to err is human, to forgive divine”, we now delve more deeply and find hope for “reconciliation and release”. Angola is America’s oldest and largest prison, with 5,000 inmates, most of whom have received life -, or death-, sentences for violent crimes, and will never leave Angola. THE FARM continues to provide extraordinary opportunities for learning through storytelling.
Posted by hcdmedia
Being a father behind bars
Being a father behind bars was a challenging experience. It was several years before I saw my daughter in person, and those were often depressing times. I used to write her a letter almost every day. I would write her as if I were writing to a young adult. I knew that she couldn’t read, write or understand, but her mother promised to read the letters to her.
As time passed, we had the opportunity to visit and share in each other’s love. I received a lot of letters and photos, and I wrote her letters and sent photos when I was able to take some. I used to give her advice on everything and I enjoyed every opportunity to answer any questions she presented to me. Over the years we developed a very close relationship. She wasn’t only my daughter, she was my friend and we could talk about anything. It made me feel special. During her teenage years she often called me her hero and although I felt pride in the fact that we were so close, I also felt a pain of not being with her and sometimes I was hard on myself for making the decisions that caused me to be confined and not physically in her life. We would talk about all of the things we were going to do when I got out of prison, and lived as if I was going to be released soon. Neither of us knew that it would take many more years before we had the opportunity to spend time together in society.
Posted by Ashanti
From Sundance to Angola
In 1998 we premiered THE FARM at the Sundance Film Festival. I couldn’t even sit in the theater, but paced outside on pure nerves, peeking in from time to time to feel the audience response. Ninety minutes later the credits rolled, the applause began, the standing ovation and the energy it inspired were harbingers of good times ahead. Its success (we were Grand Jury Prize winners) shaped my career in ways I can never fully understand.
Last week, on June 3rd, over a decade later, I premiered THE FARM: TEN DOWN in Angola Prison. The setting could not have been further removed from Park City, Utah. Instead of a big screen in a theater, we were watching on a large size television monitor in the visiting room of the prison. Instead of filmmakers, film fanatics, media, festival directors, there were 400 inmates, guards and administrators. Then beyond the visiting room the film was being broadcast on Angola’s closed circuit television station so the other 4500 men in the prison could also watch the film and the Q&A that was to follow.
This time I was a lot more nervous.
Posted by Jonathanstack
