Project Mend Collaborations

I am excited to be working with Project Mend on a planned series of collaborative short films, adapting the published writing of prison-impacted authors.

Through handcrafted animation, editing, and sound design, I introduce expressive audiovisual accompaniment to existing texts in conversation with the writers, centering their stories as told in their own words and sharing their voices for a wider audience through the medium of film. 

Project Mend is a multimodal, grassroots-level, open-access national archive centered on the creative work of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals and their communities.

Learn more at project-mend.net

A tree branch animated by Evan Bode stretches out of a prison cell window like a hand offering leaves, and blooms against a changing, multicolored sky.
A collage of three sections with artistic styles. The top section shows a small cardboard box with a chalkboard sign inside reading 'PRISON AND TIME.' The middle section depicts a clock over dark, textured background. The bottom section features a te

Prison and Time (2025)

In “Prison and Time,” I animate excerpts of an essay by writer & activist Marvin Wade, who speaks personally about his 25 years of incarceration—and the positive transformation he achieved in spite of, not because of, an inhumane prison system working against him.

Festival Screenings and Awards

“After Prison: When I Think of Freedom” with Project Mend
Auburn, New York, United States, November 2025

Outline of a laurel wreath with the words 'Official Selection: MICROACTS London 2025' inside.

MicroActs Artist Film Screening: “In a Curious Place”
London, United Kingdom, December 2025

Pebbles Underground Film and Video Art Winter Screening
Canada and Online, December 2025

Marvin Wade, a man with a beard and short hair wearing a brown sweater, standing in front of bookshelves in a library, holding a piece of paper and speaking.

Photo of Marvin Wade by Evan Bode. Marvin reads another of his essays, “Getting Over the Mountains,” at a Project Mend event at Seymour Library in Auburn, New York.

About the Writer

Marvin Wade, the writer and narrator of “Prison and Time,” is a Spiritual Activist and family man, born in 1970 and raised in Brooklyn, NY. While incarcerated for 25 years, Marvin wrote multiple books worth of stories, novels, and personal essays on every bit of paper he could find, combining his gift as a storyteller with the art of writing. As a Prison and Social Advocate, Marvin believes that his purpose in life is to be that light for those in finding their true self and true path in life.

A celebrated writer and speaker, Marvin has read his work at spaces such as the Malin Gallery, Princeton University, The Everson Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. You can read his writings in publications such as Mend, Voices of Fortune, and recreationwriters.

Read Marvin's full essay, "Time and Prison: Are They Mutually Exclusive?" in volume 3 of Mend (2025).

More about Mend

Project Mend focuses on writing and publishing as a means by which formerly incarcerated individuals and their families can reimagine themselves, their communities, and their futures. Self-expression through writing holds a potential for the transformation of not only those who create, but for those who may read the published works.

The initiative consists of two parts: Mend Syracuse, a publishing apprenticeship for systems-impacted people and Mend, a journal featuring the works of anyone impacted by mass incarceration. Both components concern the power of writing to bring about change, exploring how individuals learn to write themselves into new identities and new lives.

Project Mend is made possible through collaboration with the Center for Community Alternatives and through an HNY Post-Incarceration Humanities Partnership, which is generously supported by the Mellon Foundation and the CNY Humanities Corridor. Additionally, the project has been supported at Syracuse University by the Engaged Humanities Network, the Humanities Center, the SOURCE, Syracuse University Libraries, and the Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition.

For more information, visit project-mend.net or contact Patrick W. Berry at mendthejournal@gmail.com