Collaborations with Project Mend
I am proud to be working with Project Mend to create a short film series that highlights the published writing of prison-impacted authors.
Through handcrafted animation, editing, and sound design, I introduce an expressive audiovisual accompaniment to existing pieces in conversation with the writers, centering their stories (as told in their own words) and amplifying 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
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 in prison—and the positive transformation he achieved in spite of, not because of, the inhumane carceral system around him.
Festival Screenings and Awards
“After Prison: When I Think of Freedom”
Auburn, New York, United States, November 2025
MicroActs Artist Film Screening
London, United Kingdom, December 2025
About the Writer
Marvin Wade, the writer and narrator of “Prison and Time,” is a Spiritual Activist and family man, born 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. A celebrated author and speaker, his work has been published in Project Mend, Re/Creation, Voices of Fortune 2020 Literary Magazine, and more.
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, contact Patrick W. Berry at mendthejournal@gmail.com