'Empowering the Yard' and the world

Posted Tue, 07/28/2009 - 10:45am by Matt Itelson

Erin Persley is already packing her bags for Africa. The graduate student in Cinema will travel to Kenya and Uganda in August to screen a film she made in an SF State class, as part of the U.S. Department of State’s American Documentary Showcase.

“Empowering the Yard,” a 13-minute documentary, chronicles an HIV prevention program in Oklahoma that helps incarcerated women use peer education as a means of empowerment. Persley and fellow students Emily Kirsch and Vincent Horner made the film in the Documentary for Social Justice and Health class, a partnership of the National AIDS Fund, SF State Health Equality Initiative and Cinema and Health Education departments.

Read more in an SF State News story published July 24.