The Exile Nation Project: Prologue (1 of 14)

The Land of the Free punishes or imprisons more of its citizens than any other country. This collection of testimonials from criminal offenders, family members, and experts on America's criminal justice system puts a human face on the millions of Americans subjugated by the US Government's 40 year, one trillion dollar social catastrophe: The War on Drugs; a failed policy underscored by fear, politics, racial prejudice and intolerance in a public atmosphere of "out of sight, out of mind."

The United States has only 5% of the world's population, yet a full 25% of the world's prisoners. At 2.5 million, the US has more prisoners than China. 8 million more languish under some form of state monitoring (1 in every 31 Americans). On top of that, the security and livelihood of over 13 million more has forever been altered by a felony conviction. The American use of punishment is so pervasive, and so disproportionate, that The Economist magazine declared in 2010, "never in the civilized world have so many been locked up for so little."

The project will unfold over a two year period, beginning with the release of this feature-length documentary and then continuing on with the release of short films and complete interviews from each of the 100 participants in the project, meant to represent the 1 in 100 Americans that are currently sitting behind bars.

The Exile Nation Project is made possible by a generous grant from the Tedworth Charitable Trust and the openDemocracy group, in association with Exile Nation Media. All content produced is non-commercial and available for free distribution under a Creative Commons license.

BONUS FEATURE: "Friday the 13th" a poem by John Sinclair, follows the credits.

Written, Produced and Directed by Charles Shaw

Director of Photography - Charles Shaw

Edited by Charles Shaw & Dustin Edwards

Motion Graphics - Dustin Edwards, Brodie Sullivan

Music by Random Rab, Junior Boys, Cloud Cult, Four Tet, The War on Drugs, SearchLite.

Production Assistants - Erin Shaw, Michael Garfield, Baza Novic

Technical Advisor - Taylor Cahill

Featuring...

Christian Parenti
Eric Sterling
Mark Kleiman, Ph.D
Sanho Tree
Judge James P. Gray
Ethan Nadelmann
Anthony Papa
John Sinclair
Nora Callahan
Chuck Armsbury
Amy Povah Ralston
Lynette Shaw
Scott Imler
Kyle Kazan
Julie Holland, M.D.
Robert Manor
Aaron Blackledge, M.D.
Randolph Hencken
Stephen Dubov
Chris Bava
Steve Costello
Dorothy Johnson-Speight
Ryan Keesling
Alexis Wilson Briggs
Malakkar Vohryzek
AJ Lovewins
Debi Campbell
Julie Falco
Allison Moore
Jean Marlowe
Rebecca Forbes
Stephani Conyers
Dimitri Mobengo Mugianis
Audra DeLuca
Nicole Benisch
Anthony Reed

Charles Shaw is an award-winning journalist, author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, Exile Nation: Drugs, Prisons, Politics & Spirituality, and Director of the documentary film, The Exile Nation Project: An Oral History of the War on Drugs & The American Criminal Justice System.

Charles serves as Editor for the openDemocracy Drug Policy Forum and the Dictionary of Ethical Politics, both collaborative projects of Resurgence, openDemocracy, and the Tedworth Charitable Trust.

Charles' work has appeared in Alternet, Alternative Press Review, Conscious Choice, Common Ground, Grist, Guardian UK, Huffington Post, In These Times, Newtopia, The New York Times, openDemocracy, Planetizen, Punk Planet, Reality Sandwich, San Diego Uptown News, Scoop, Shift, Truthout, The Witness, YES!, and Znet. In 2009 he was recognized by the San Diego Press Club for excellence in journalism.

LINKS
ExileNation.org
opendemocracy.net/​exile-nation-project
realitysandwich.com/​exile_nation_drugs_prisons_politics_spirituality
realitysandwich.com/​blog/​1265
opendemocracy.net/​editorial-tags/​drug-policy-forum

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Charles Shaw
• Exile Nation
• drug war
• prison
• criminal justice
• openDemocracy
• policy
• reform
• prison-industrial complex
• John Sinclair
• Drug Policy Alliance
• Ethan Nadelmann
• Christian Parenti
• Julie Holland
• Mark Kleiman
• Nora Callahan
• Eric Sterling
• Institute for Policy Studies
• Sanho Tree
• L.E.A.P.

[kristip16]

speechless... tearful.... validated... in awe... grateful beyond words for Charles Shaw's birth, brilliancy, and superb journalism ability - and I've been aware of the man's existence for less than 24 hours :)

[MrDubDisciple]

The war on Drugs is simply just the class and race war in one nice, neat and politically correct bundle. Capitalism creates the hard-working, futureless middle and low class workers who want to unwind and relax. What does marijuana do? You take something the middle and low class covet, make it illegal and then your free to do whatever you want.

[drummerguy669]

Its not a "war on drugs" it is a war on our personal freedom. Nothing but power and greed.

[wda013]

(7:12) " the 'drug' war has always been about social control "

exactly. --as any rational observer would notice-- is not really a "war on Drugs", not even a "war on Some [mostly the wrong, at that] Drugs", but a method of OPPRESSION, a tool of tyranny, an effort at "social cleansing" -~ Noam Chomsky in watch?v=X6jPzCJdVPE

[mahajohn]

Silver Spring, MD!  Not "Springs!"

[cccdirector]

This is totally awesome Charles, can't wait to see the full film! When all the excitement is over, you should come chill in NC again. Sit by the river, stare at the mountains, and lose yourself for a while.. you would love it. Spent the whole weekend up there clearing my head. Mwah!