What Comes Before An Emmy? A Belief in Community-Powered Storytelling
Represent Justice celebrates the Emmy wins for The Strike and Songs From the Hole, two films that demonstrate the power of authentic authorship, community-rooted storytelling, and the growing movement to shift narrative power into the hands of people most impacted by the stories being told.
The awards are a testament to the extraordinary filmmakers, artists, participants, and creative teams behind these projects. They also invite a larger question: What comes before an Emmy?
At Represent Justice, we are proud to have partnered with both films through impact campaigns designed to connect their stories with advocates, educators, organizers, artists, and audiences across the country. Through community screenings, workshops, and conversations, we witnessed firsthand how these films resonated with people who saw their own experiences reflected on screen and with audiences eager to better understand the realities of incarceration and its impact.
But before the long and impressive awards conversations comes a simple belief that communities have the power and knowledge to identify the stories that matter, and that movement spaces are filled with talented storytellers waiting for the opportunity and infrastructure to reach mass audiences. Similar to the role of the producer, organizers with lived experience, like Dolores Canales (The Strike), and artists, like JJ’88 (Songs from the Hole), can champion stories, share them, organize around them, and use them as tools for education, healing, and change.
"Without community, independent films don't get made, and they don't reach audiences. It's inspiring to see industry awards recognize two beautiful films that have always prioritized forging connections with viewers,” said Carla Fleisher, VP of Films and Series at Represent Justice.
For decades, stories about incarceration have too often been shaped by institutions and storytellers furthest from its impact. Those narratives have played an outsized role in shaping public understanding of the justice system, often reducing people to stereotypes and obscuring the humanity, complexity, and resilience that exist within impacted communities.
"The media landscape is changing, and over the past 5 years, we’ve seen that the most impactful stories are the ones that are created and scale within the community first, not last. It takes an unwavering belief that narrative power starts with the people who lived the story, and we’re honored to be part of the shift from storytellers being treated as subjects to becoming real participants with shared power, acknowledgment, and the ability to drive narrative and impact,” said Daniel Forkkio, CEO of Represent Justice.
A growing ecosystem of filmmakers, organizers, advocates, artists, philanthropists, and community leaders has been working to shift narrative power by investing in authentic authorship and supporting stories led by people with lived experience.
The Strike and Songs From the Hole are undeniable evidence that this ecosystem change is not only real and attainable, but inevitable.
In their acceptance speeches, both richie reseda (Songs from the Hole) and JoeBill Muñoz (The Strike) spoke directly to the next generation of filmmakers – storytellers who are incarcerated, and kids learning about the world through public television – and told them they also belong up on that stage too. That’s the power of industry recognition that follows community storytelling.
We celebrate these wins and everyone who helped make them possible.
The impact campaigns for The Strike and Songs from the Hole were awarded through our Open Call, a central component of our Films & Series work centered on building capacity and narrative power for currently and formerly incarcerated film participants—who play a leading role in each campaign—elevating their voices, their work, and their movements for change.
