Lance Kramer

Background

In America, 80 million people in America have an arrest record. That’s 1 in 3 working age Americans. Most people want to work and thrive in America. Yet a conviction background carries thousands of collateral consequences that create massive barriers to equal employment and participation in society. Millions of people carry this scarlet letter through life each day, facing a “civil death” that inhibits their ability to contribute to the economy and society. Collectively these factors form one of the leading civil & human rights issues of our time. America has invested in a structural and cultural system that relies on punishment. What if we invested in people not punishment?

La Manplesa: An Uprising Remembered

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of Daniel Gómez, a young man from El Salvador. Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theatre, La Manplesa weaves together the collective memory of one of D.C.’s first barrios and dives into the roots of the ‘91 rebellion. As people across the world take to the streets to demand an end to police brutality, the film honors the largely untold stories that have come before us, and explores how artists prompt us to remember what we still have to fight for.