Write a Prisoner (dot com) is a prison penpal site where felons in the United States create profiles to attract people to write to them. It’s like a dating site, different to the more ethical Human Writes (which randomly match you with someone). I did not want to be matched with anyone. I decided that I could not write to anyone who had hurt women or kids, and I wanted someone who could draw as I was doing embroidery of prison tattoos at the time.
I thought if I wrote to someone on Death Row, then if they would not be able to get out and went cray-cray (and have my address. I clicked on the filters (on Death Row? Check) and started to pick out pictures, with a slight preference for the handsome features of Hispanic men. I was wary of sex offenders who were Not of Normal Criminal Ethics (N.O.N.C.E). I started looking at the profiles and drawings of men on Death Row and researching their court cases (you like poetry, but you rape...veto this one) (I believe in God, but I torture women....veto that one) - you get the picture.
My first choice was Martin Robles, at that time on Death Row in Texas. I liked his drawing, in the same way that I like childrens drawings. I try to read the drawing within the frame of its context. He was dead by the time by letter would have arrived. I decided to concentrate on California - where the executions had stalled since 2003.
Tony’s profile stood out because he said that despite his situation, he remained optimistic and was social. I found that intriguing. When I wrote to him, he sent me a photo of a drawing he did with pen on a hankerchief (a chicano prisoner tradition and currency) and I knew then that I would continue writing to him. His drawing was exactly what I wanted to see, and work with. I started to embroider it then and it took me 3 years (the length of our communication to complete).
When I visited Tony in San Quentin his family were given the go ahead by him to talk to me. I liked his Dad a lot and he gave me a tattoo. HIs sister was tough to interview, quite guarded but then she opened up and gave the most powerful portrait of Tony. She describes how she tried to get her younger brother out of gangs before it was too late - to the extent of physically pulling him out.
I did not feel it would be right just to give one side of the story and so this film also shows Mike Hestrin, the District Attorney who prosecuted Tony and got him the death sentence, Steve Shumway, the Detective who hounded Tony to get evidence against him.
I always felt like I had done something slightly wrong in filming the people who caught and prosecuted Tony, when he and his family had been so kind to me, but if I hadn’t, only a half-portrait of a charming, good looking man who could draw well would have been achieved. I think together all these perspectives on Tony give a better picture of who he really is (which is a charming, good looking man who can draw really well and chose a life style that cost him his freedom - and another man his life). Allegedly.
I thought if I wrote to someone on Death Row, then if they would not be able to get out and went cray-cray (and have my address. I clicked on the filters (on Death Row? Check) and started to pick out pictures, with a slight preference for the handsome features of Hispanic men. I was wary of sex offenders who were Not of Normal Criminal Ethics (N.O.N.C.E). I started looking at the profiles and drawings of men on Death Row and researching their court cases (you like poetry, but you rape...veto this one) (I believe in God, but I torture women....veto that one) - you get the picture.
My first choice was Martin Robles, at that time on Death Row in Texas. I liked his drawing, in the same way that I like childrens drawings. I try to read the drawing within the frame of its context. He was dead by the time by letter would have arrived. I decided to concentrate on California - where the executions had stalled since 2003.
Tony’s profile stood out because he said that despite his situation, he remained optimistic and was social. I found that intriguing. When I wrote to him, he sent me a photo of a drawing he did with pen on a hankerchief (a chicano prisoner tradition and currency) and I knew then that I would continue writing to him. His drawing was exactly what I wanted to see, and work with. I started to embroider it then and it took me 3 years (the length of our communication to complete).
When I visited Tony in San Quentin his family were given the go ahead by him to talk to me. I liked his Dad a lot and he gave me a tattoo. HIs sister was tough to interview, quite guarded but then she opened up and gave the most powerful portrait of Tony. She describes how she tried to get her younger brother out of gangs before it was too late - to the extent of physically pulling him out.
I did not feel it would be right just to give one side of the story and so this film also shows Mike Hestrin, the District Attorney who prosecuted Tony and got him the death sentence, Steve Shumway, the Detective who hounded Tony to get evidence against him.
I always felt like I had done something slightly wrong in filming the people who caught and prosecuted Tony, when he and his family had been so kind to me, but if I hadn’t, only a half-portrait of a charming, good looking man who could draw well would have been achieved. I think together all these perspectives on Tony give a better picture of who he really is (which is a charming, good looking man who can draw really well and chose a life style that cost him his freedom - and another man his life). Allegedly.