The Feminist on Cellblock Y
On the title card for the film, the profile of Richie Reseda's face looks in the distance. He has light skin, short hair, a goatee, and a small tattoo below his right eye. The Feminist on Cellblock Y is printed in a thick black text next to his face.
Directed byContessa Gayles
Produced by
  • Contessa Gayles
  • Emma Lacey Bordeaux
CinematographyContessa Gayles
Production
company
CNN
Distributed byCNNgo
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Feminist on Cellblock Y is an American documentary directed by Contessa Gayles and co-produced with Emma Lacey-Bordeaux for CNN. The titular subject is Richie Reseda, an inmate at a prison in California who studies and organizes around feminism and toxic masculinity with his fellow inmates. The documentary premiered on CNNgo on April 18, 2018.[1][2][3]

Synopsis

The film follows "a classroom of male prisoners as they wrestle with vulnerability and the confines of masculine norms through the lens of theorists such as bell hooks."[4] Called Success Stories, the class is led by a 22 year-old inmate then known as Richard "Richie" Edmond Vargas.[5] He teaches his fellow inmates about feminism and toxic masculinity at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, California. Richie's wife, Taina Vargas-Edmond also appears in the film.[4]

Production

Background

CNN producer Emma Lacey-Bordeaux met Richard "Richie" Reseda[6] (then known by the name Richard Edmond Vargas) in 2008 when he was a high school student who was suspended for printing an image of the female anatomy on the cover of the school's student newspaper.[7] Lacey-Bordeaux read about the story in the Los Angeles Times and interviewed Reseda about the incident in her role as director of the radio station at Georgia State University.[7] She reached out again in 2016 when seeking sources for a CNN story about criminal justice, and Reseda's wife notified her that he was incarcerated for two armed robberies on local Rite Aid pharmacies.[6][7]

Reseda and Lacey-Bordeaux began to converse by phone. She and fellow CNN producer Contessa Gayles developed the idea for the documentary after sitting in on Edmond's weekly feminist education group, Success Stories.[7]

Filming

The film was shot over several months and production worked around the correctional facility's regulations.[7] It was directed and co-produced with Gayles, who also served as the cinematographer.[4] The crew was small and consisted of Gayles, Lacey-Bordeaux, and sound mixer Eric Day.[7]

Release

The Feminist on Cellblock Y was released on CNNgo on April 18, 2018.[1]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 Lacey-Bordeaux, Emma (2018-04-20). "Why feminism and racism have a lot to do with the gun debate". CNN. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  2. ↑ Davey, Emma. "A Men's Prison Group In California Is Learning About bell hooks". bust.com. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  3. ↑ "Meet Richie Reseda - Voyage LA Magazine | LA City Guide". VoyageLA. 2019-09-04. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  4. 1 2 3 McCray, Rebecca (2019-03-15). "Meet the men who are dismantling toxic masculinity from behind bars - Women's Media Center". womensmediacenter.com. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  5. ↑ Atkinson, Maxine P. Social problems : sociology in action. Korgen, Kathleen Odell, 1967-, Trautner, Mary Nell, 1974-. Thousand Oaks, California. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-5443-3866-8. OCLC 1110657601.
  6. 1 2 Finster, Tierney (2018-08-01). "The Feminist on Cell Block Y Is Now a Free Man". MEL Magazine. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lacey-Bordeaux, Emma (2018-04-23). "A source from a decade ago emerges, improbably, as a key player in her prison documentary". Poynter. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  8. ↑ "Best of 2018". Vera Institute of Justice. 2020-07-14. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
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