From Los Angeles to Louisiana: Part Two of Our Community Storytelling Initiative Presents Over Punitive Film

Last year, Represent Justice and our community partners in Los Angeles premiered Diverted, a film that challenged fear-based narratives about Black and Brown youth and called for a future rooted in healing, diversion, and community care. That premiere marked more than the release of a film. It reflected what becomes possible when organizers working closest to the issue have the tools, training, and support to shape the story themselves.

Now, we’re preparing to share the second project born out of our Community Storytelling initiative: Over Punitive, a Louisiana Community Storytelling film created alongside Vera Louisiana, The Promise of Justice Initiative, Louisiana Parole Project, Second Look Alliance, The First 72+, and Voice of the Experienced (VOTE).

Louisiana is known around the world for its music, culture, and spirit. But it has also long been defined by one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation and, at times, the world. Over Punitive explores that contradiction by examining the human cost of extreme sentencing and a legal system that has too often treated punishment as the default response to harm. Through the stories of Ronald Marshall, Susie Ann Marshall-Tarleton, Sandra Starr, Brett Malone, and Don Allison, the film invites audiences to question what punishment actually delivers — and what real safety might require instead.

Like our Los Angeles Community Storytelling project, this work was built in partnership with organizers and advocates deeply embedded in their communities. Too often, stories about system-impacted people are extracted, shaped from the outside, and circulated without building lasting power for the people most affected. Our Community Storytelling was designed to produce pieces that reverse that dynamic by placing narrative tools in the hands of those already doing the work on the ground. In both Los Angeles and Louisiana, our partners have helped shape not only the films themselves, but the questions, strategy, and vision behind them.

Over Punitive challenges the assumption that harsher punishment creates safer communities. It asks whether severity has been mistaken for safety, and whether investment in prisons has come at the expense of healing, accountability, education, and the conditions people actually need to thrive. It points toward another vision — one rooted in dignity, reconciliation, restorative justice, and second chances.

We’re honored to be releasing Over Punitive with partners whose work is already advancing sentencing reform, restorative justice, rehabilitation, and second chances across Louisiana. We hope audiences will engage with the film, share it with their communities, and use it as an opening to ask harder questions about punishment, safety, and what justice should look like.

Stay tuned for premiere details, ways to support our partners, and opportunities to host screenings and continue the conversation.