- Welcome to POV.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Tonight, we will learn about the lives of a mother and son
who both left legacies before their untimely deaths.
The son took his own life after being wrongfully incarcerated,
and his mother died shortly after of a broken heart,
but not before leaving her family and the world
with poetry inspired by the memory of her son.
Tonight's documentary, For Venida, For Kalief
intertwines spirituality and activism
and reimagines the genre of the criminal justice documentary
as a poetic collage.
When Kalief Browder was just 16, he was incarcerated
at New York's infamous Rikers Island jail,
a place for those awaiting trial
who typically spend no more than a year.
Kalief was held in solitary confinement for 700 days,
almost two full years of his three years at Rikers.
He was eventually released without being charged.
His crime?
Authorities claimed he stole a backpack.
Being accused of a crime he didn't commit is one thing,
but during Kalief's time in jail,
he experienced beatings at the hands of guards multiple times,
with one incident captured on video.
He also was beaten by several inmates.
Of his time at Rikers, Kalief says he became scarred
and was robbed of his happiness.
During his incarceration,
he tried to commit suicide more than once.
Two years after being released,
he ended up taking his own life at the age of 22.
Such a tragic end to Kalief's life
had a profound effect on his loved ones.
His mother, Venida, blamed herself
because she could not afford the $900 to post bail
after Kalief's wrongful arrest.
His brother, Deion, says Venida cried herself to sleep
every night Kalief was in jail.
While there was temporary joy when he was released,
after he took his own life, Venida's grief never went away.
To deal with her sadness and to honor Kalief's memory,
Venida became an activist, hoping to prevent other children
from suffering abuse by prison guards
and worked on cash bail reform.
Venida also found solace in writing poetry
to deal with her son's death.
Venida died of a heart failure just one year after Kalief.
For Venida, For Kalief is directed by Sisa Bueno,
who makes her feature film directorial debut.
Bueno found the project when she saw Venida speak at an event
about her son's experiences.
Luckily, or due to divine intervention,
Bueno happened to bring her camera to the event
and was able to record Venida.
The director was moved by what she heard
and calls the evening a serendipitous moment in her life
because it helped her decide to make a film.
The recording is also the only time she filmed Venida
before Venida's death.
Sisa says the moment she heard about Venida's poetry
and before she even read or heard any of the words,
she could see the film in her head.
Bueno uses cinéma vérité and rare archival imagery
to provide a picture to Venida's words
and help create vivid poetic interludes to tell her story.
Summarizing the loss of mother and son
within just a year of each other,
Kalief's brother Deion says,
"My mom died trying to preserve the legacy of her son.
Keeping kids out of solitary will preserve hers."
Just lovely.
For Venida, For Kalief starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.