CALLS FROM HOME

Editor & Music

Directed by Sylvia Ryerson

A longstanding radio program sends familial messages of love to people incarcerated in Central Appalachia. Directed by Sylvia Ryerson, a former DJ for the show, Calls From Home follows the weekly broadcast through prison walls, portraying the many forms of distance that rural prison building creates—and the ceaseless work to end the racist system of mass incarceration and family separation.

Calls From Home was selected for The Montclair Film Festival, The Social Justice Film Festival, Indie Memphis, Lost River Film Festival and won best short documentary at The Toronto International Women Film Festival. It also was awarded the 2022 Jack Spadaro Documentary award.

Calls From Home has played around the United State as part of Working Films’ “Beyond Walls” series.